


Plastic Hearts

by Vibranch



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Body Horror, Friendship, Gen, Loss of Identity, Psychological Drama, Psychological Horror, Set during KH3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-06-13
Packaged: 2019-11-14 19:36:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 39,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18058718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vibranch/pseuds/Vibranch
Summary: Having crash landed on a new world, Sora, Donald, and Goofy find themselves turned into living toys. However, after meeting a cowboy and space-man toy in the backpack of a boy named Sid, the trio begin to doubt the authenticity of their own memories outside of the world.An alternate take on how things could have happened when Sora lands on the world, Toy Box.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some slight creative liberties have been taken on the nature of toys in Toy Story.

The Gummi Ship’s sirens were blaring as the lights flashed red over and over. The entire vessel shook as another blast rocked through the port side. Gripping the controls, Sora scanned every which way. Craning his head to the left, then whipping it to the right trying to find where the attacks were being fired from.

“What’s going on?!” Sora shouted as the Gummi Ship began to nose dive towards the nearby world they had been orbiting. Sora pulled up on the controls trying desperately to regain some sense of control over the ship again. The ship had been suddenly struck just as they had begun to approach this new world and been preparing for a landing.

“Oh no!” Goofy blared “We’ve lost a wing!” Sora’s eyebrows rose with shock as he saw a sizable portion of armor come off along with the wing. Sora gritted his teeth as he yanked on the controls, trying to turn the Gummi Ship’s only good side towards where the attacks had been coming from.

“Can anyone see where this is coming from?!” Sora yelled to his two friends.

“Over there, Sora!” Sora’s eyes scrambled towards Donald’s position to see him pointing out the Cockpit window. Following his friend’s finger Sora only saw empty space. His eyes darting back and forth trying to spot whatever it was Donald was pointing at.

“Where?! Donald, where is it?! I don’t see it!” Sora paled as frustration and helplessness tore at him, panic creeping up as the sirens continued to echo through the ship. But just as he had gotten the words out, he saw it. It was only for a moment, but Sora saw as another Gummi Ship’s cannons fired, the combustion of the projectile illuminating its black hull, camouflaged in the dark background of space and sitting within the shadow of the space junk around it.

“Right THERE!” the mage screeched! But before Sora could let him know that he had finally seen it, another violent tremor passed through the ship as the projectile tore into them. Panicked, Sora’s mind scrambled, trying to decide if now was a better time to rush at the enemy Gummi and counter attack or turn around and try to make a retreat. But where would they go? They had traveled for so long just to get here, and the bright oranges, yellows, and reds decorating the ship left them with little chance to hide between space rocks as their opponents had been doing.

“We don’t have any time to try and run away…” Sora gritted his teeth, mostly out of frustration and apprehension of the upcoming battle, but he hoped that to his two friends it looked determined. “We’re going to have go in for a fight!”

Sora looked at Donald and Goofy from the corner of his eye, ready for them to make a better suggestion, to say anything that he might not have considered or at least look surprised. If at the very least they were surprised, their enemies might also be surprised by their decision to fight back.

But none of that came from them. They just looked nervous, yet understanding. They had clearly come to the same conclusion, as Sora had. Sora swallowed, a little more nervous now, but he didn’t have a choice anymore. He revved the throttle and prepared to make up some of the distance between the two Gummi Ships.

However, Sora found that the ship wouldn’t accelerate as fast as it should. He looked around at his two friends for help. “Are our engines damaged?!” Goofy immediately looked around at the screens nearest him, trying to make sense of what was going on.

“Well, shouldn’t they’ve exploded if’n we’d been hit there?!” Goofy shouted back, continuing to look over the screens when a thought passed through his head. “Maybe that last hit we took, separated some wiring that lets the Gummi Ship talk to the engines?” Sora looked back at Goofy, both of them mirroring each other’s face with fear at the possibility. But Donald, struggling to get the teeny ships to engage, was only growing more frustrated and angry.

“Who are these guys!?” Donald shouted.

“You don’t think…?” Sora began, but he hesitated to finish the thought.

“The Organization?” Goofy finished for him, hearing the words filled Sora with dread and he wished Donald hadn’t brought the question up, thoughts of the armada that blocked them from entering Twilight Town during their last journey sprung to Sora’s mind. But for the most part only Heartless had ever tried to attack them while traveling between worlds. But this was clearly another ship, built by someone intelligent.

Sora tried to refocus on his dogfight with the other Gummi Ship, but their Gummi Ship was barely able to stay mobile as it was, and now the enemy Gummi was charging its lasers. Sora’s eyes stretched as he saw the enormity of power being built up.

“Sora, evasive maneuvers, now!” Donald yelled, snapping Sora out of his trance. He jammed on the controls, trying desperately to negotiate some kind of speed as the ship spun into a new direction. But, no matter how roughly he treated the controls, the ship was still an easy target just as their opponents finally released the energy they had been charging.

The hull roared as the laser washed over them, electrified particles burning at every inch of their shielding. One of their engines caught fire and exploded. By some miracle, the explosion didn't spread to the other engines and destroy the ship, instead the sudden burst gave them just enough speed to escape from the laser before their cockpit could give way. But a new problem emerged. The Gummi Ship was hurtling towards the world beneath them, caught in its gravitational pull and no engine power left to push against it, the ship began to spin towards the world beneath them. But if their mysterious enemy had been this determined to destroy them, then surely they would continue looking for them after Sora and his friends had crash landed.

_We have to hide…_

The words flashed through Sora’s mind. “That thing is trying to kill us!” Sora struggled to focus as everything spun around him. In the chaos, everyone was gripping their seats. Struggling to remain seated as the centrifugal force pulled at their bodies.

“Donald!! Your magic!” Sora screamed as the ship spun out faster and faster in a corkscrew fashion. “It’s gotta be stronger than usual! If they find us while were down there, who knows what will happen! They’re clearly not aiming to just leave us with a warning! We have to make the Gummi Ship blend in with this world too! Not just us! We have to leave as little a trail as possible!” Donald wanted to argue, he wanted to try to think of something before he decided to start casting spells that weren’t always obvious as to what effect they would cause. They didn’t even know if Organization 13 were the ones behind this. But the ship’s spinning had gotten so out of control he couldn’t think straight, and as they got closer to the world he could see houses and neighborhoods sitting in the way of where they were going to crash. The disorientation and panic didn’t leave him time to think. He just told himself that they had to preserve the world order and forced the spell that allowed them to blend in become more powerful than he had let it before.

Sora could feel the changes immediately; usually it took some time to discover if any changes had occurred, even the more extreme changes they had gone through in the past, back at Atlantica and the Pride Lands, had somehow remained subtle and only really came to Sora’s attention after he’d taken a good look at himself. But this time was different. His whole body tingled from the change, and just before he had the chance to take a look at what was happening to him, he blacked out.

The speed of the rotation was too much, and the stress of the hopeless battle had finally caught up to him. Only the sounds of the Gummi Ship crashing and skidding against concrete entered his mind, and even that had only lasted a moment before he lost consciousness to absolutely everything.

***

“Uhhh… What happened…?” Sora groggily woke up, unable to piece together where he was or what events had transpired before he fell unconscious. A dull headache enveloped over him. Holding a hand to his head he tried to focus on whatever scraps of memory he could find. A few moments of thought went by when scenes from back aboard the Gummi Ship flooded through his mind.

“Donald! Goofy! Are you guys there?!”

Sora’s heart stilled as he focused all his attention on trying to find them, relief flooded through his heart as he heard an exhausted quack respond to his voice.

“Wak, where are we?...” Donald’s voice was quiet and slow as he picked himself up and slowly took in his surroundings.  From Sora’s other side he could hear Goofy’s voice shakily respond.

“Hey Fellers, we all still in one piece?” Goofy was still a little dazed from recent events and pawed at his forehead and eyes in a vain hope that rubbing them would make the throbbing go away.

Sora was relieved to see both his friends were fine, though they were clearly badly shaken from the crash landing. It wasn’t until Donald spoke up again that Sora started to take notice of his surroundings

“Hey, what’s with this place?” Donald pressed his feathered hand against the wall of the enclosure “I thought this was some sort of cave, what with how narrow and dark it is, but feel it for yourself. I'd almost call it soft…”

Sora turned towards one of the walls and pressed his hand against it. Just as Donald said, it certainly wasn’t made of rock. Though he wouldn’t exactly call it soft, the wall did give way slightly when he put a little extra effort to push against it. Sora turned to Goofy hoping to hear his opinion, but Goofy just looked at him worriedly, he looked like he wanted to say something but was holding himself back. Sora wanted to check on him, ask if he was ok, but before he got the chance another voice emerged.

“They appear to have fully come to, Sheriff.”

“Well good for them, But they’re gonna wish they had stayed asleep as soon as we reach Sid’s house!”  Sora looked towards the voices, but his face immediately scrunched into confusion at what he saw. A cowboy and, what was that other guy? Was he wearing a space-suit? Excitedly standing behind them was, an even more confusing sight, a short green three-eyed man.

“Sorry, I think we’re still a little confused… Uh, who are you guys and where are we?” Sora, taking a moment to parse through what the cowboy had said, hastily added “oh and, uh, who’s Sid?”

“Sid is a boy who enjoys torturing the residents of this world for fun” The Spaceman said “as for where you are…”

“You’re in his backpack” The cowboy stated matter of factly, as if that wasn’t an odd thing to say. Sora blinking with continued confusion hoped he’d go on. “I guess I should start from the beginning” the Cowboy sighed. “My name’s Woody and this is Buzz. We’ve been trying to get back to our kid, Andy”

“Slow down there, Woody” the spaceman interrupted “You’re still trying to get to Andy, but I’m only interested in procuring a way to get off this world! I still have to get to Star-Command! Did you forget?! I have important information to report to them about the evil Emperor Zurg!”

“So, you’re also not from this world?” Sora interrupted “maybe we could help you. Right guys?” Sora turned to Donald and Goofy. Donald looked ready to give a lecture to him about the importance of the world order. “We are going to need some help finding the Gummi Ship, so maybe they could help.” Donald relented; it would be difficult to explain what the Gummi Ship was without revealing the existence of other worlds. Besides it sounded like this Buzz guy was also from a different world as well. Begrudgingly Donald looked at Sora and gave him the ok to confide with Buzz.

Sora’s smile from Donald’s permission quickly ran across his face. He turned back to Buzz and spoke, “We’re also from a different world, my name’s Sora and that’s Donald and Goofy. Did you see a ship anywhere nearby when you found us? We crash landed here.” Buzz took a moment to consider what Sora said, rubbing his chin in thought. Woody on the other hand looked incredulous.

“Oh, you can’t be serious. You all are just as looney as he is!” Woody said pointing at Buzz, “Look at yourselves! You’re not from other worlds, you’re toys!”

“Sorry Woody, but these guys can vouch for me now.” Buzz turned to Sora, Donald, and Goofy “Why don’t you tell him about Star-Command.” Buzz expected to finally prove Woody wrong. He waited for a moment to hear what the three strangers would have to say about Star Command. But he was met with silence and a confused look from Sora

“Uh… Have either of you heard of a Star-Command?” Sora looked between his friends, but they just shook their heads. “Sorry Buzz, but we haven’t heard of them. Do they fight the Heartless on other worlds?” But this time Buzz looked at them in confusion.

“Impossible… You haven’t heard of Star-Command?” Buzz was barely above a whisper, but spoke up to answer Sora’s question. “No, they don’t deal with whatever the Heartless are. Star-Command is the universe’s last defense against the evil Emperor Zurg.

“Hmm, well I don’t know who that is either. But I certainly know that we’re no toys, right guys!?” Sora turned to face his friends but while Donald nodded in agreement, Goofy had that same look from earlier. He looked guiltily at Sora but couldn’t make eye contact. “Goofy, is everything ok?”

“Well, Sora… I didn’t want to say anything earlier. But when I first woke up, I felt a little funny.” Goofy looked away for a minute, but took a deep breath and looked right back at Sora. “Not like I was sick or anything, just, when I was rubbing my head I…” Goofy’s voice trailed off again. But rather than say anything, he knocked his hand against his head. And when he did it made a rather sharp clink. “I think I’m made of plastic, and looking at you and Donald, I think you guys are too.”

Sora took a step back and felt himself. And sure enough, instead of soft skin, he was met by hard plastic. Looking back at Donald, Sora saw that his friend was lacking the feathery down he expected to see.

“See? Exactly as I said, T. O. Y. toy.” Woody said. Sora wanted to argue more, but before he got the chance the entire bag they were standing in shook. Sora’s breath hitched in his throat. Memories of the Gummi Ship shuddering from impacts filled his mind. Finally the Little Green Man spoke up

“Nirvana is coming! The mystic portal awaits!” pointing through a zipper opening of the backpack at the door of a house they were approaching. He looked excited enough to jump out the bag just to reach the door sooner, Woody on the other hand was downright horrified and looked at everyone assembled in the bag.

“Will you be quiet?! You guys don’t get it. Once we go into Sid’s house, we won’t be coming out!”

Sora wanted to ask who Sid was again, but just as he was about to bring up the question, Sid reached out and opened the door. Immediately a giant of a dog started barking at the bag carrying them. Sora immediately thought of Cerberus, but this dog only had the one head and might have been bigger. Or were they really small? Had Sora and his friends been shrunk? They seemed to be made of plastic, he supposed changing size wouldn’t be impossible either, and it would explain how they all fit in one backpack.

“Hey there Scud, I got something for you!” The voice came from outside the bag, interrupting Sora’s thoughts. A moment later a hand reached into the bag, Sora felt his body stiffen unnaturally as it went deeper in.

“Freeze!” Woody whispered. Though Sora found that he couldn’t do much else in the situation. In fact, Sora started to will himself to move, but to no avail. The hand kept going deeper until it wrapped around the little green man from earlier. It also didn’t move but somehow a look of excitement broke across its face as it looked back at the others. As the hand pulled away from the bag Sora found his body start to move under his command again. Sora filled his lungs with air and felt relief flood through him as his body returned to his control.

It was short lived feeling. As seconds later, the dog ripped into the Little Green Man, shaking its head violently back and forth. Sora, outraged, tried to summon his Keyblade to his hand determined to stop this cruelty from continuing on. But to his horror, the Keyblade didn’t appear in a flash of light. He tried a little longer to will his weapon into his hand without any luck, before he looked back up and saw the alien’s three eyes stare back at him. Filled with sorrow and fear, begging for help. But all Sora could do was look away, hoping that he wouldn’t be able to somehow continue feeling The Little Green man’s gaze from within the jaws of the beast.

Sora shut his eyes and clamped his hands over his ears trying to block out the world he found himself in. And for a moment it worked, Sora could imagine he was someplace else. Back at the islands or maybe he was visiting Kairi in the forest Merlin had made for her and Axel. Was it Axel? He wasn’t quite in the loop anymore, but he thought he remembered someone said that his name was different now, or that Axel wasn’t his real name.

Sora’s thoughts were interrupted again as the bag suddenly shook again and the screams of a girl broke through the meager defense of his hands and filled his ears. Sora opened his eyes looking around.

“Oh no, Not Sid’s room.” Woody begged. But Sora refused to continue to acknowledge what was going on around him. He just wanted a sense of security, it had only been ten minutes or so since he had woken up from the crash landing, and he already felt helpless again.

Again, Sora was thrown back into the weird and unfamiliar world as he suddenly felt the bag everyone was in fly through the air and land on something soft. He struggled to get everyone off him and find the exit of the bag, but just as he did he heard a girl scream followed by Sid’s yelling.

“She’s lying!! Whatever she says, It’s not true!!”

Sora crawled out of the backpack. Still a little shaken by earlier events, but he tried taking a deep breath. It seemed that Sid had thrown the bag everyone was in on his bed and ran out the room as well. Now that Sid was out of sight, and hopefully he’d be gone for a while, he could try figuring out what was going on.

“Donald, Goofy. You guys alright?” Sora’s friends walked up to meet him looking just as shaken as he did. They gave him some unconvincing answers, trying to reassure him that they were fine. And Sora wanted to do the same, but he knew he had to let them know about his attempt to use the Keyblade. “Guys… When that alien was… Well, you know, I really wanted to do something… But, I…” Sora swallowed, trying to find the courage to finish what he was going to say. A part of him just wanted to ignore it, maybe his failure to summon the Keyblade was a fluke. Or maybe if he tried right now it would suddenly work. So he raised his hand out and closed his eyes, already able to visualize it in front of him and feeling the familiar weight in his hand. But when he opened his eyes, there was nothing in his grip. Sora sighed and finally continued “I couldn’t summon the Keyblade, guys…And if I can’t do that, I can’t help anyone. Not Riku or the King. I can’t help stop Xehanort! And if there aren’t seven guardians of light, then they’re just going to use Princesses of Hearts, so no matter what; they’re still going to go after Kairi! I couldn’t even do anything to help that Alien!!”

“Hey, Sora! It’ll be ok!” Goofy interrupted. Sora could barely get the words out at the start. But by the end he was shouting. “C’mon now, things have pretty weird, lately. But remember! No sad faces, right? Moping won’t help solve what’s going on. We gotta stay positive if we’re gonna figure this out.”

Woody was less optimistic, “We are going to die… I’m outta here” Woody rushed for the door Sid closed, jumping from the bed to the door knob. Only to discover Sid had locked the door. Sora looked away, he’d rather spend his time and energy making sure his friends were alright and make a plan rather than panicking.

“Excuse me,” Buzz tapped Sora on the shoulder, “You mentioned something about a key?” In his hand was Sora’s Keyblade. He could scarcely believe it.

“You found it?! Where was it?”

“When we discovered your bodies, it was lying a little ways from you, Sid collected them and placed them in the bag with the rest of us. That, and a shield and rod of some sort.”

“My staff!” Donald exclaimed finding it in the bag.

“Gwarsh, guess we must’ve not noticed them because of everything that’s happened since we woke up. Sora reached over and grabbed his Keyblade, but something wasn’t right with it. It didn’t have that cool metallic feel too it anymore, he looked over to Donald and Goofy, they had similar expressions on their faces too. Even their weapons had been changed, instead of the fine wood finish on Donald’s staff and the sheen to Goofy’s shield was missing. All their weapons were made of plastic as well.

“Hey, Donald… How powerful is your magic? Could it have changed the Keyblade too?” Sora was a little hesitant to pose the question.

“Well, my magic should leave our weapons alone, usually those don’t give away that were from other worlds. Although, I guess it did change their appearance slightly last time we went to Halloween Town…”

“So then maybe, it’s just blending in with the locals” Sora answered, a wave of relief washing over him, but Donald just tapped his foot and looked pensive.

A moment passed when they finally heard Woody’s voice again. Or rather his panicked breathing as he climbed back up the bed, and started to cry out for Buzz’s help. The group looked down as they saw the horridly abused forms of other toys drag themselves towards headless remains of the doll Sid had ‘operated’ on.

“They’re Cannibals!” Buzz gaped as they started tearing into the doll Sid had worked on, that familiar feeling of panic washed over Sora again. “Star-Command, Star-Command come in…” Sora prayed that someone would answer through Buzz’s wrist communicator, but it only remained silent. “I’ve set my laser from stun, to kill…” Determined to remain confident despite the lack of response, Buzz pointed his arm outstretched as his voice lowered to a gravely pitch.

“Oh great, and if anyone attacks us, we can just blink them to death!” Clearly unimpressed by Buzz’s attempts to reassure the rest of the group, Woody scoffed at his words. Sora wanted to believe Buzz, but looking at the dinky laser, Sora was inclined to agree with Woody instead. One of the toys noticed them and started to approach them.

Sora’s breath hitched in his throat, its head appeared to have come from a doll of a child. But the rest of it, it was a mess of metal appendages. Looking back at its face Sora noticed it was missing an eye, destroying any illusion that it was an actual head, Sora could see inside its hollow head, the little bit of protruding hair on its head could be seen protruding into the inside of its skull, well if it had a skull…

“Freeze!” Sora pointed his Keyblade out, ready to feel the familiar sensation of ice magic blast forth and knock away the approaching thing. Sora wasn’t ready to accept that it was a toy, either in the present or the past. But nothing came from his Keyblade, and now it was looking right at him. “I said Freeze!!” Sora commanded more at his Keyblade but the thing in question also stopped moving, although it was still looking directly at him. Sora heart stilled as he wondered what he should do next. The Keyblade wasn’t channeling his magic through it, that was twice now the Keyblade wasn’t working as it normally should. Refusing to be summoned to his hand and now no magic, Sora wasn’t sure if he could fight of a creature whose body was mostly made of metal now that the Keyblade was made of plastic and its magical properties weren’t working. Eventually Goofy spoke up

“That’s enough now, you’ve had a good look, but its time you left us alone!” The thing looked at Goofy now, Sora hoped it would listen, but Goofy looked prepared for things to get physical should it move a little closer. Eventually Footsteps were heard coming from outside Sid’s door. Sora felt his body go rigid again, the same way it had when Sid reached in to take out the little alien toy. The thing suddenly darted away, hiding itself underneath the bed, just before Sid reentered the room. Sora’s body jerked into a pose as his face forced its way into a characteristic smile. The sudden movement caused his body to tip over and fall on the bed.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading this first chapter all the way to the end. Please, if you can, leave a comment. This is my first publication on this website and I'd like to get a bit better at this whole writing thing, so whether you liked or or though it could use some work let me know and I'll keep trying to improve it. The 2nd chapter is already written, so that'll be up when I'm finished editing it in a few days.


	2. Chapter 2

Sid had placed Sora, Donald, and Goofy on his desk while giggling about what to do with them tomorrow. From the desk, Sora could see that Woody and Buzz had gone limp, while Donald and Goofy were like him, frozen in place with silly smiles on their faces.

Sora spent the whole night trying to get himself to move. He tried to scream, he tried to focus all his energy just to make the smile plastered on his face turn into a frown, even his eyes refused to move at first. By the time the sun rose for the next morning, Sora was certain he’d finally gotten his eyes to dart back and forth. It was little comfort, but regaining any form of his autonomy was a victory in his book. He strained his eyes, looking as far as he could to his side, just to look at Donald and Goofy again. They also seemed to be able to move their eyes, as just in his peripheral it appeared that they were looking back at him, though their faces were still locked into a grin like his.

Eventually Sid woke up, but despite giggling about what he was going to do to them last night, his first thought upon waking was about breakfast. As Sid left the room Sora’s body finally relented to his demands. It seemed that Donald and Goofy had been trying to do the same thing all night too, because once Sid had closed his door the three of them all launched in different directions. Woody and Buzz looked up from the bedroom floor they had spent the night on, surprised by the burst of movement from the three on the desk.

“You guys alright?” Woody asked clearly concerned and trying to make sure everyone was alright. He and Buzz hurridly climbed up the desk and helped the three to their feet.

“Woody, whats going on? All of last night… I couldn’t move. No, we all couldn’t move!”

Woody looked down at Sora and the other two, he looked at them with a heavy sense of pity.

“You guys must be very new toys… Buzz is the same; Andy only just opened him a little while ago. Sora stared at Woody quizzically, waiting for him to continue. “You see; toys can’t move in the presence of humans. Depending on the material the toy comes from, the effect is different. I go limp since I’m just a doll made with stuffing, but you three are like Buzz. When someone walks in, you’ll go rigid and probably fall over, because you’re made of plastic.”

“But I don’t understand; I’m not a toy.” Sora objected. “Maybe this is from Donald’s magic. I told him it had to be stronger this time, so maybe that’s why…” Woody raised a hand to stop him.

“Sora, please. You’re just making excuses to protect yourself. I get it, especially here. I wish there was a magic spell that could take us all away from this house. But the past you’re talking about, it’s all just backstory some marketing team came up with to get kids to want to buy toys of you.” Sora stiffened.

“You don’t know that… I, no, we came from another world. If I could just find some way to prove it…” Sora whispered, desperate to prove Woody wrong. Buzz also claimed to be from another world, but had no knowledge of magic. So the reason why his laser didn’t work or he couldn’t speak to Star-Command was because he’d always been a toy. But Sora was determined that he would be different. He thought for a moment, then a smile spread across his face. Buzz couldn’t speak to Star-Command because they weren’t real, but Sora’s friends were! He just had to speak to them; silently he thanked Chip and Dale as he reached for his Gummi-Phone.

“I can prove it, Woody!” Sora spoke confidently, looking the cowboy doll dead in the eye. But as his hand reached his thigh, he couldn’t feel his pocket. Instantly he looked down, there it was on his leg. Clawing at it; Sora hissed “c’mon open, my Gummi-phone is right in here. It’s where I always leave it.”

 “It’s not a pocket, Sora” Woody sighed, he had to end this argument here, they had to focus on getting out of the house alive. “It's just a solid piece of plastic just painted to look like it has a pocket. You were made to give children the illusion that they could go on the same adventures that you think you and your friends went on. The reason you don’t have a phone is because it would be a chocking hazard for very young kids.”

“No, that’s not right, It can’t be…” Sora looked back at his thigh; some of the paint that represented the pocket on his leg had been scratched off from Sora’s clawing. He looked back at Donald and Goofy. “What do you guys think?” Donald tried to cast another thunder spell at empty space, but nothing came from him as he shook the staff. Goofy just looked at them both sadly. None of them wanted to be the first to say it. But Woody had gotten to them. Their lives and histories might very well be a lie.

“Think what you want, Sora. But don’t try fighting anymore. There is no such thing as magic, and you are not durable enough nor are you strong enough to fight off Scud. I want to get out of here, and I know you want to too. So promise me that, and lets work together to get out of here.” Sora only looked down, not responding to what Woody had just said. So Woody pushed a little harder, “what do you guys say? No trying to fight? Just focus on trying to escape, agreed?”

“Agreed” Sora choked out, a little while later Donald and Goofy said the same just as defeated as Sora.

Woody sighed again, He understood, it would be nice to be able to cast magic or fight with a magic sword. But staying deluded wouldn’t help them get out, and the only other way these delusions were going to end was at the hands of Sid. Woody tried not to think about all the other toys he’d seen being destroyed from Andy’s window, he didn’t want that to be the way Sora found out that he was just a brittle plastic toy. And besides Woody still had to get back to Andy and he had to come back with Buzz or the toys he’d left behind would think he had killed the Space toy. Sora could be a great help and Woody would gladly welcome him into Andy’s room, but if kept believing that a toy key-sword held supernatural powers he was going to end up as Scud’s next chew toy.

***

Kairi stabbed at the pad of paper with her pen. Hoping inspiration would strike her sooner or later.

“Hey, Kairi! Writing another letter?” Kairi looked up seeing Axel approach her.

“Yeah. Well, actually, it’s more like I’m trying to write one.”

“Oh? Having a little trouble coming up with a topic?” Axel questioned, “Maybe you should give it a little time, it’s not been that long since the last one you wrote. Besides if you keep this up, you’re going to make me feel like I can’t hold a conversation” Kairi smiled at his joke.

“It’s not like conversation with you is bad or anything, it’s just…” Kairi didn’t know how to finish her thought and took a moment before beginning again, the amusement vanishing from her face. “I just had a funny feeling this morning. I don’t know how to put it, not to you or to Sora.”

“Funny as in, ‘ha ha’, funny? Or funny as in, ‘I think that last meal I had was undercooked’, funny?” Kairi usually didn't try to hide her feelings, but Axel had learned that the more personal they got the more guarded she became. When she didn’t answer Axel worried this was more than she was letting on. “Are you stressing out about Xehanort and everything? Cause that’d be normal, Kairi.” Axel still felt guilty about kidnapping her; she had said she forgave him. But it didn’t stop him from apologizing whenever the chance came up. But that guilt also made him worry about her too. If something was going wrong, he was certain it wasn’t going to be because of him. Not again, and if anything he’d try his hardest to be the solution. Finally she looked back at him, he was taken aback by the worried look she had

“I think… I think something’s happened. I just feel like... I mean, this morning just as the sun rose it felt like…”

“Hey you ok, Kairi? C’mon all you gotta do is spit it out, we’ll think of something once it’s out and in the air, no matter what it is”

“It felt like I lost someone important.”

***

Typically by this time Sora, Donald, and Goofy would have given them a call. It was almost like clockwork.

 Riku brought it up to Mickey; a week had gone by without word from any of them. Mickey, however, had been so focused on getting back to the Realm of Darkness and search for Aqua, that he hadn’t even realized how long it had been since their three friends had  last called.

“Hmm… Welp, hopefully they’ve just been busy on some other World.” He chimed optimistically, “Usually they call us up first. But, I say we oughta give ‘em a call for once, nothin’ to report; just an excuse to say hiya!” Riku smiled at the thought, it was like Mickey could sense his unease from not hearing from Sora in a while. And he could already hear Sora’s voice teasing him about worrying to much. So he pulled out the Gummi Phone and dialed Sora’s number. Riku hummed to himself as he waited for Sora to pick up. But instead of Sora’s voice, Riku’s ears were greeted by an error message.

“Hi there, this is Chip…”

“…And Dale!”

“If you’re hearing this something must be wrong with one of the Gummi Phones. Please give us a call or visit us if that doesn’t work and we’ll have a look at it as soon as we can

“See or hear from you soon!” A moment later the message repeated itself. Riku looked up at Mickey a bit worried. Mickey scrunched his eyebrows together and reached up to grab the phone, trying hard not to look worried lest he cause more stress for Riku.

“Well gosh that doesn’t sound like either of the three we were trying to contact. Let’s try calling Chip and Dale like they said, maybe somethings wrong on our end and that’s why they haven’t called us lately” with the phone in hand Mickey dialed in the number for the Castle, hoping that he’d receive the same message, explaining away the radio silence from his three friends.

“Your Majesty!” The two engineers jump to attention on the small screen in Mickey’s hand, “What can we do for you, sire?” Mickey giggled at the sudden formalness from the two and began his question.

“Welp, let’s see. Riku and I were try’n to give Sora and the others a call, but all we got was an error message left by you two. So, we were hopin’ that you’d be able to track ‘em down for us or take a look at the Gummi Phone we’re usin’.” The chipmunks looked at each other for a moment before answering.

“Well, if you called us, then your phone is probably working fine.” Dale answered, “Chipper and I’ll see if we can’t contact Sora and the others on board the Gummi Ship like we used to do.” The two scurried off screen to begin their work.

“Aww thanks guys, Riku and I’ll stick around in the Realm of Light just for a while. So give us a call when you find something, alright?” The two Engineers ran back on camera and gave Mickey a salute before the call ended.

“Welp, I suppose that explains that huh, Riku?” Riku was silent a little longer before turning to Mickey.

“Yeah, I suppose so. Sora will probably be turning up at Disney Castle any moment now. Knowing him, he probably sat on it or something.” Riku gave a short laugh at the thought, though he was mostly trying to reassure himself. Besides, he and Mickey still had work to do in Radiant Garden, they couldn’t get distracted right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for reading this far! Once again if you enjoyed or felt there was room for improvement, let me know in the comments!


	3. Chapter 3

Sora, Donald, Goofy, Woody, and Buzz learned exactly what being played with by Sid was like when he returned. Body parts were twisted and bent, Sid brought out toy guns to practice his aim on them, and when Sid grew bored with one toy, he’d toss them aside before moving on to the next. Fighting back proved next to impossible for Sora. No matter how he tried to get his body to move, no matter how slight or small the movement, Sora limbs and features stayed permanently locked in the way Sid had left him.

Sid took a special interest in Woody. Saving him for last, Sid began interrogating him, burning a hole into his forehead with a magnifying glass. As the scene wore on, Sora began to wonder if Sid somehow knew the toys were alive. Eventually a voice called out to Sid, letting him know that whatever he left cooking, was ready. As Sid ran off, Sora found himself able to move and his head facing the floor. But as he moved to press himself up from where he was lying, he felt his arms shoot up into the air behind him. Sora continued to flail his arms in the air not understanding what was wrong with his body. His frustration growing, Sora kicked the floor, feeling it fly through the air and a dull thud as his heel landed against it. A moment later, Sora realized what was wrong. Taking a moment to collect himself as he lay face down on the floor, Sora traced the outline of his body, running his hands over himself until he reached his head and confirmed his fears. He was turned around, or rather his head was. During the chaos of being toyed with by Sid, Sora hadn't even realized his head had been twisted backwards by the end.

“Hey guys could you give me a hand?” Sora called out to the others as he continued to lay on the floor unable to change his situation alone. Then he heard two sets of footsteps walking towards him.

“Here, we can help you up.” Sora recognized the voice as Goofy’s, but the direction he was facing meant he couldn't see him. “Donald, I’ve got his right you get his left.” The two lifted him up to his feet and Donald asked a Sora another question.

“Do you need some help facing us?” Sora would have thought he was making a joke under any other circumstances. But right now Sora was gently trying to turn his head to be on the correct side of his body again.

“I don’t know… Maybe.” He cringed as he tried to twist his neck further than he ever remembered it going. “Do you guys think you could help me sit down actually? I think you're right, I'm gonna need some help with this.” He pointed at his head hoping they would get the picture.

“Okay, Sora. Just one swift motion” Donald prepped him. Sora swallowed, hoping he’d be able to get this over with soon enough. “Ok, and now!” Goofy held Sora’s body in place, as sora jerked his head to the side and Donald twisted. Sora was breathing heavily and if he wasn’t made of plastic he probably would have been covered in sweat. He looked down seeing the tops of his feet again and let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding

“Thanks guys. That felt… Really weird.”

“Gwarsh, there’s a good chance Sid’s going to do the same to us too. So there’s no need to thank us”

“Yeah, besides you know what we always say. ‘All for One, and One for All’, we’re all in this together!” Donald said; giving Sora a smile.

“Well, maybe you’ve said it before. I remember you saying before but… I just don’t know if I can trust that memory… Sorry” Sora felt bad admitting this. After everything that’s happened, he wasn’t sure he was ready to risk being let down again.

“Aww shucks, it’s okay. Maybe we’ve never actually said it before to each other." Goofy said, "but I’ll betcha we can start a friendship just like the one we remember” Sora felt a smile return to his face.

“Yeah, you’re right Goofy.” Sora wrapped his arms around his two friends “Maybe everything that’s happened between us wasn’t real, but it feels real enough to me. I’m glad we were found as a complete set!” For the first time since waking in Sid’s backpack Sora felt kind of good. He'd feel even better once they were out of this house, but he relished in the moment regardless.

“Hey guys! Over here, Sid left the door open!” Sora looked up from Donald and Goofy to see Woody waving them over. He and Buzz looked to have had their own conversation.

The trio bolted towards Woody and Buzz excitedly. Woody repeatedly stated a mantra of ‘there’s no place like home’ over and over to himself as he ran out the door and down the stairs. But before he could get far, he stopped; staring at the sleeping image of Scud.

Woody took a moment to swallow his fear and quietly as he could started back up the stairs. The other four weren’t as fast as him, and as they rounded the corner they called out to the Sheriff doll.

“Hey, Woody! Slow down!” Their eyes suddenly rounded with horror as they saw the sleeping beast just three steps below Woody.

Instantly it opened its eyes and rotated its head towards the sound. Its eyes narrowed into slits as it saw the toys trying to escape Sid's room. At this point Woody was scrambling up the stairs trying to get away.

“Guys, time to run!” Woody called out in his mad dash from the dog. Sora looked around trying to decide as fast as possible where the best place to go would be. Scared as he might be, Sora couldn’t bring himself to run off without Woody.

“We should split up! It can’t chase more than one group of us!” Buzz yelled.

“Right We’ll all meet back up later!" Sora agreed, "Woody, reach for me!” Sora reached out to Woody as the dog gained on him, Buzz, Goofy, and Donald started running for the door at the end of the hall.

Sora pulled Woody up from the last stair to climb and started to run, Scud making chase right behind them.

When Donald turned around he could see Scud closely behind Sora and Woody. They weren’t going to make it in time. Donald griped the toy staff in his hand knowing he couldn't let Sora get torn apart the same that alien toy had been, and besides, the dog only wanted one toy.

“Sora, Woody! The hall closet!” Donald pointed to a small door that Sora hadn’t noticed earlier. Sora's face filled with relief,  _we might just make it there in time,_  he thought. It was cracked open just enough that Sora slipped right in when he dove towards it. Woody was right behind him and gripped a corner of the door and pulled it shut.

Sora instantly let out a sigh. “Thank goodness Donald pointed that out; I did not like the look in that dog's eye.”

“I’ll say,” Woody agreed as he fell backwards into a sitting position

“Hopefully the other three made it away from that dog.”

I’m sure they did, I’m more surprised, Scud didn’t catch us. He was right behind us”

“I guess Donald’s shouting must have distracted Scud for the moment we needed.”

“Yeah we’ll have to thank him when we get out.” Woody realized that with the door closed they weren't going to be able to push it back open. “Uh, by the way Sora. Think you could give me a boost?” Sora looked over to see Woody pointing up to the handle of the door.

***

“Buzz you alright…?” Goofy waited a moment for Buzz to respond, "what were ya watching on the TV?"

Deep in thought, Buzz barely registered what Goofy said, his attention fixated on his wrist communicator. Studying it closely, Buzz saw, for the first time, the phrase ‘made in Taiwan’ written just high enough that he’d never noticed it before. Buzz tried to think of a way to explain this and the commercial he had just seen. The words, 'Not a Flying Toy' flashed through his mind. Back at Andy's room, Woody had claimed the same thing about Buzz back then.

Buzz’ thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Goofy again. “C’mon Buzz, we need to get back to Woody and the others. I think I heard Donald calling out to Sora, so I’ll bet if we find the others they'll all be together! ” Buzz’ eyes stayed glued to his wrist communicator as he tried to refocus. “Hey Buzz, can you hear me?”

Finally Buzz spoke up, “Goofy, tell me. Are you a toy?”

Goofy jumped at the sound of Buzz’ voice, for a moment he didn’t actually think he would respond. “Gwarsh, I didn’t think so at first. But really I don’t know…” Goofy considered what he said, so much had happened since he woke up in Sid’s backpack. This would be the first moment he had to reflect on everything going on. Goofy usually tried to think simply, from his perspective the more complicated you made things, the easier it was to overlook things or get caught in assumptions. Of course thinking like this could lead to issues too. Goofy had admitted to himself a number of times that he took things at face value too much.

“Goofy… I don’t want to hear an ‘I don’t know’. Tell me if you are a toy or not!”

Goofy jumped in surprise, he wondered again what had been on the TV that had caused this. But Goofy could see Buzz was insistent. He had to come up with a concrete answer. The trouble was; Goofy wasn’t sure either way. He wanted with all his heart to not really be a toy, but fear of being wrong kept Goofy from truly believing it. He thought about answering that he was a toy. That way if he was wrong, he’d be pleasantly surprised rather than the other way around. But trying to say it out loud only caused the words to get caught in his throat. Goofy realized that he wasn’t just telling Buzz whether or not he was a toy, he was telling himself. Even more, he’d have to tell Sora and Donald sooner or later what he believed.

He didn’t like it but trying to think logically wasn’t working for him. Although it rarely did anyway Goofy supposed. So he tried to think emotionally, about his friends. The connection he had between him, Sora, and Donald. Could they really be as close as they were with just artificial memories? “Buzz, I’m not a toy. Neither are Donald or Sora.”

“What makes you so sure?” Buzz arched his eyebrow; he was interested in the sudden confidence his companion spoke in.

“Well, I haven’t had lots of time to think about it, but I just can’t say everything I remember is wrong… Besides I gotta trust my heart. And it’s telling me that my friends and I have known each other longer than we think!” A calm flooded through Goofy, saying the words out loud seemed to solidify his belief. But Goofy was unnerved by the grim look on Buzz’ face.

“I also know that I’m not a toy too. But you know what, Goofy? You three kept going on about ‘magic’, and because of that, I don’t think we can both be real.” Goofy gulped at Buzz’ words “You wanted to know what I saw on the television, right? It was a commercial. A commercial for me.”

“Gwarsh Buzz, I didn’t know-”

“I’m not finished!” Goofy slapped his hands over his mouth to show he didn’t mean to interrupt. “There’s no such thing as magic, Goofy. You guys have tried to use it and failed! And if there was such a thing, that would mean I didn’t exist, since I’ve been through the universe and I know it doesn’t exist. Yet you’re so certain that you exist despite that, so there could only be one explanation I can think of.”

“And that is?” Goofy whispered, he didn’t actually want to hear the answer, he was frightened at what Buzz thought the answer was, but he knew Buzz was going to tell him regardless.

“You, maybe even all three of you, are agents of Zurg!” Buzz aimed his laser at Goofy’s head, watching him for sudden movements. “You all thought that commercial would convince me, didn’t you!? But you made a mistake; you claimed I wasn’t a flying toy. I don’t know why you thought to add that, but Woody made the same claim and I proved him wrong back at Andy’s room and I can prove the same claim wrong again here!”

“Buzz, what are you talking about?! I’m not working for this Zurg feller; I just want to get out of here with my friends. Now c’mon, we gotta go find the others. There’s no point fighting amongst ourselves!”

“I don’t think so!” Buzz still had his wrist laser trained on Goofy. “I’m not sure if I can trust you three.” Goofy was getting sick of Buzz’ suspicions, he tried to remain positive but the fact was two of his good friends could be in trouble.

“I don’t care if ya believe me! We gotta find the others! If you can fly, than that means you’re real, right? Then either I’m wrong and me and my friends are actually toys or if ya really believe I work for this Zurg-guy, then we’ve already failed at trickin’ you into believing you’re a toy!” Buzz lowered his arm that had the laser mounted to it.

“Then go search for them, Goofy. I’ve got to prove something to myself first.” Goofy watched in confused but determined silence as Buzz started walking back to the hall they had escaped from before. Buzz studied the area outside the TV room. Satisfied that the coast was clear, Buzz walked over to the railing of the second floor and climbed up it.

“Buzz, what are ya doin’!?” Buzz’ thoughts drifted back to the commercial he had seen as he poised himself on the railing. Looking ahead at a window on the other side of the room, the words ‘Not A Flying Toy’ came back to him. He knew he could prove those words wrong. But knowing wasn’t enough right now. He had to prove it to himself again, and end all of the doubts.

“To infinity, and beyond!” Buzz leapt, wings and arms outstretched, towards the open window on the wall. Buzz hung in the air, for a moment even Goofy thought he might actually fly all the way to the window. But the moment passed, and Goofy watched with horror as Buzz fell ungracefully to the ground a story below.

Peering over the ledge to see Goofy called out to the space ranger. Concerned at the lack of a response Goofy leaned a little farther forward, before tumbling ungracefully to the bottom. The last sounds echoing through the hall came from Goofy as he let out a “Yahoohoohoey”

***

Woody hung onto the door knob of the hall closet, doing his best to twist the handle as Sora pushed the door open from below. Slowly the door creaked open and light began to fill the room that they were once trapped in. Satisfied the door was pushed open far enough; Sora looked up and called to Woody to letting him know he could drop down. As he did; Sora saw writing on the bottom of Woody’s boot.

Woody landed in front of Sora with a smile, “thanks for the help, now we just have to find the others.” Sora nodded in agreement.

“Hey Woody, Do you have something written on your boot?” Sora asked.

“Huh? This?” Woody raised his foot revealing the name Andy. “It’s Andy’s name. It reminds me that I’m very important to him…” Woody paused for a moment considering the meaning behind the writing on his foot. “And it’s a reminder that Andy is the most important person to me too…” Woody trailed off, smiling at the thought of the boy who once played with him.

“The most important person to you, huh?” Sora considered, “I wonder who that would be for me… I thought I knew earlier, but she might not even be real…” Sora stood, trying to imagine who that person might be. The only people he knew for certain existed were Donald and Goofy, and even then his memories with them were possibly some backstory someone came up with. Still, the fact that they also remembered what he remembered made Sora feel closer to them, even if they had only really known each other since last night. The thought of Donald and Goofy reminded Sora that neither he nor Woody knew where the others were. “Woody, where do you think everyone else went?”

“Hmm,” Woody considered, “well, they seemed to be running ahead of us. So I think we should try that room over there.” Sora peered into the room as Woody called out in a loud whisper, “Buzz, you there? The coast is clear!” Only silence followed. Woody looked back at Sora “Come on, maybe they’re further in and haven’t heard us.”

Sora followed after the cowboy towards the TV room. As he did, he thought about what Woody had said about the name on his boot. How it was the name of the person that was most important to him. As he thought this, his foot began to tingle and itch. Sora thought it was odd. After all he was made of plastic; Sora didn’t even know he could feel itchy, being made of plastic after all. And it wasn’t even really his foot that itched; it was the bottom of his shoe. Although, Sora supposed that his foot inside the shoe couldn’t itch, since he must not have had one inside shoe. After all, the shoe was just a plastic mold.

“I really shouldn’t be surprised anymore…” Sora whispered to himself “I might be made of plastic but I can still feel pain. I guess odd itches still happen even for toys.” Sora dragged his foot across the ground as he walked, hoping that would get at the itch. “It’s funny, it kinda reminds me of Donald’s magic when we were crashing here.”

As the two toys entered what appeared to be a TV room, Sora noticed his body getting heavier as they walked further into the room. “Hey, Woody? Are you having trouble walking too?”

“Huh? What’s that, Sora?” Woody turned around to see Sora barely holding himself on his legs. “Hey, are you alright? I’m sorry, I should’ve said something earlier.”

“What do you mean?” Sora looked at Woody but had some difficulty lifting his head to look at him, Woody pointed at a comfy looking sofa chair before he continued.

“Look over there. That must be Sid’s dad, sleeping on that chair. That’s probably why you’re having so much trouble right now.”

Sora looked at him, confused. “I thought you said toys couldn’t move in the presence of people? But you’re moving, we both are.” Sora stumbled a little, but Woody steadied him by placing a hand on his shoulder. “Well, I seem to be having a bit more trouble at it than you are right now.” Woody gave Sora a sympathetic smile.

“You’re still a new toy, Sora. But yeah, we are moving in his presence. You get used to it when you’re around people a lot. I mean, its still hard to do, but you can get used to it. It’s like working out a muscle. But try to remember, Sora. You’re still new; you’ve come a long way if you’re able to walk around a sleeping man. But that’s the easiest the it’s going to get. The closer you get and the more aware people are that you’re around, the stronger the effect is. So, just try to be careful, ok?”

“You must have been around Andy a lot to be standing so easily right now.” Sora wheezed.

“Yeah, I have” Woody smiled wistfully. “With Andy, I’ve never really needed a reason to move when he was around, but I was still with him the most out of all the other toys; so I’m pretty used to it now…” Woody stopped when he saw Sora’s face looking at the floor. “Hey, c’mon Sora. We’ve got to find the others; it doesn’t look like they’re in this room.” He hoped the continued search would help cheer the new toy up.

***

“Get away from them, you big palooka!” Donald threw his staff at the charging dog just as Sora dived towards the hall closet Donald had pointed out. The dog seemed to barely feel the staff, but it had drawn the attention away from Sora and Woody. Donald watched as the dog walked towards him, teeth bared. Donald was too scared to move, only a nervous chuckle escaped from Donald before the large beast sunk its teeth into the mage.

Scud, with its new toy, scurried down the stairs. Occasionally it took a moment to shake Donald around violently. Scud entered the kitchen where Sid was eating breakfast. Sid didn’t notice the dog at first, but the familiar sound of plastic cracking caught his attention as he turned and looked at the dog.

“Hey Scud, what have you got there?” Donald couldn’t decide if he should be afraid or relieved at Sid’s voice. Thoughts of the Franken-toys and the alien he arrived at this house with flashed through his head. “Scud, did you take this toy from my room?! You know you’re not supposed to go in there!” The anger in his voice seemed to grow as he saw the toy in his mouth. “Scud, drop it! You’re not supposed to chew on toys like this!” Scud dropped Donald obediently.

Sid crouched down next to the dog examining the toy, a myriad of bite marks littered its body and a crack left a split through the toy’s chest. Sid lifted one of its legs, only for it to fall from the socket as he let it go. “See Scud? What if this had fallen out while it was still in your mouth?” Sid spent another moment trying to place it back into its socket. “Guess you’re lucky your parts can snap back together, huh little duck?” Sid said when the leg finally snapped back into place. Looking over the toy, another thought struck Sid. “I must have a couple of toys in my room with similar joints… Oh that’s right! Those two other toys I found with you should work.” If Donald was currently capable, he would have gulped in fear at the grin spreading across Sid’s face. “What do you think, ducky? How would you like to be taller? I think a transplant is in order.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize that this chapter took so long. I've had a rough draft since chapter 2 came out that I just couldn't get happy enough with. Anyway I'm going to post this now, before I find something else to edit and rewrite again!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just for the record, I've been referring to the mutilated toys in Sid's house as Franken-Toys, just because I needed to give them a name and I'm not aware of an official name for them as a group. I don't even know if Sora knows what Frankenstein is.

“There’s a secret mission, in uncharted space.”

“Really? How Interesting.”

Woody and Sora both stopped mid-step. Quickly they turned to face each other, both hoping to confirm from the other that they hadn’t imagined the familiar voice. Quietly, they hurried towards the room the voices had come from. Peering from around the corner they saw two of the toys they were looking for.

“Goofy! Buzz!” Sora did his best to whisper, excitement getting the better of him. He wanted to run to them as soon as he saw them, but a young girl walked into view pretending to fill a small teacup in front of Goofy.

“I’m so glad that you and Mrs. Nesbit could join us today. I hope you enjoy the tea. It’s one of my favorites.”

Sora’s breathing hitched in his throat, as he saw that the young girl held on to the severed arm of Buzz Lightyear, which in turn, held the teapot. “Woody, what happened to Buzz’ arm?” Sora leaned towards Woody, “You don’t think she tore it out, do you? She _is_ Sid’s sister, you know. Maybe cruelty to toys runs in the family.”

“I don’t know about that, Sora. Remember when we first got here? Sid stole one of her toys and ripped its head off. She might be a victim to his cruelty just as often as us toys are.” Sora looked away in shame as he recalled how he had tried to pretend he was someplace else, a vain attempt to protect himself from the horrors he witnessed. “But one thing I do know is that we need to separate her from the others if we’re going to regroup.” Sora looked back towards Woody, grateful for the change in subject.  Woody pulled him around the corner of the door and put on a falsetto voice as he called out, “Hannah! Oh, Hannah!”

The girl’s head lifted. “Mom? Mom, what is it?” She looked back to the toys she had found on the ground earlier, “I’ll be right back, ladies.” She whispered, then stood up and left the room, heading down the stairs to see where the voice had come from.

Once the girl was out of sight, Sora ran out from behind the door towards their friends. “Guys, what happened?” Goofy smiled at the sight of him. Buzz on the other hand barely seemed to notice the other toys’ presence. Only responding after Woody gave him a gentle shake.

“Gone! All of it gone! Goodbye, woohoo, see ya!” Buzz was nearly incoherent as he continued muttering to himself. “One minute you’re defending the whole galaxy! The next you’re sucking down Darjeeling with Marie Antoinette and her little sister.” Sora noticed two dolls, both of which were missing their heads. They waved to Sora, who returned the gesture, but found he wasn’t sure if the gesture mattered much considering the state they were in.

Hoping Goofy would be more open to conversation than Buzz was, Sora turned to his friend. “Goofy, could you try filling us in?”

“Buzz tried to fly out the window over there…” Goofy pointed out the bedroom door and towards a window on the far side wall. “The impact of when he landed musta knocked his arm out. And not long after, Hannah came by and found us lying there.”

“She found both of you on the ground?” Sora asked.

“Well…” Goofy hesitated out of embarrassment. “I was so worried about Buzz that when he fell, I lost my balance while checking to make sure he was okay.”

“And you’re alright…?” Sora looked back at Buzz. Woody stood next to him unsuccessfully trying to snap him out of his delirium.

“I think so… Cant’ say I’ve moved around much since Hannah found me though.” Goofy stooped and looked around. “Say, uhh. Where’s Donald? Isn’t he with you?”

Sora scanned the room, sure enough, Donald wasn’t there. “I thought he was with the two of you?”

“I remember him calling out to you, then when Buzz and I finished hiding he wasn’t around. So, I thought he was with you guys.” Goofy explained.

“No, I remember Donald was close to you and Buzz. When he called out to us, he pointed out the hall closet. It was a good thing too; because I was certain that huge dog was gonna catch us.” Sora again looked around, making sure Goofy didn’t somehow miss the fact that Donald was with him.

“Well if the dog was right behind you… and neither of us knows where Donald went… Uhh…” Goofy wasn’t sure where he was going with this, but Sora seemed to think of something, as his eyes grew wide with concern.

“You don’t think the reason that giant dog left us alone was because it found a new toy to chase, do you!?”

“C’mon Sora, ya’know Donald can take care of himself, we just gotta find him now is all.”

Sora wasn’t convinced, but he tried to smile and reassured Goofy. “Yeah, you’re probably right.” He hated how useless he felt. It seemed the only thing he could do was smile and try to pretend it didn’t bother him lately.

In the background; Woody was trying to snap Buzz back into reality. Sora turned to look at them just as Woody slapped Buzz with his own disembodied hand. For a moment that seemed to work too. But only for a moment, as Buzz fell on the ground lamenting that he was a sham. “All those years of academy training wasted! I couldn’t even fly through a window!”

Woody’s eyes lit up with an idea at the mention of the window. “Out the window? Buzz, you’re a genius!” Woody ran back to the hall closet and returned with a roll of Christmas lights. Grabbing Buzz by the back of his spacesuit, Woody dragged him out of the room. “Guys, follow me. We have to go back to Sid’s room. I have an idea!”

Sora and Goofy looked at each other, Goofy didn’t want to force Sora back into that room. In fact, the thought of returning to that room felt like entering a lion’s den, and neither of them wanted to experience being played with by Sid a second time. Goofy looked at Sora, He could tell Donald was still on his mind. “It’s alright, Sora. We gotta get out of here before Hannah comes back, and besides, were not going to find Donald if we stick around here.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Sora sighed, “We’d better get going.” Sora offered Goofy a hand and helped lift him from the chair. Putting weight on his battered body caused Goofy’s plastic limbs to creak. Sora looked at him concerned, but Goofy assured him he was fine.

They didn’t have time to go over the noises his body made, Woody and Buzz were already out the door. Sora and Goofy were going to have to run just to catch up to with them.

“Goofy are you sure you’re alright?” Sora looked back at his friend; he was struggling to keep up. Goofy’s right arm hung limply from its socket, his right foot seemed not to be fully connected to his leg, and his left knee would groan after every step he made.

“Sora, I’m fine. We’re almost at Sid’s room, ya can worry about me later.” Goofy’s hobbled run ended just as they caught up with Woody and Buzz. A screw holding Goofy’s left knee in place came loose, and everything below his thigh fell with it.

“Goofy! Are you ok?!” Sora said as he hovered over Goofy, not sure what to do. Woody and Buzz turned around at the sound of the toy falling. Woody ran over to the other two toys, while Buzz took a short glance at the scene before looking away at the floor.

“Uhh, I think so...?” Goofy said as he lay on the floor unable to pick himself up. “Couldja give me a hand, Sora? I don’t think I can go the rest of the way by myself.” Sora nodded and pulled Goofy’s good arm over his shoulder, studying his friend’s features. Goofy could feel Sora’s gaze, carefully he tried not to reveal any emotion. He didn’t want Sora to worry about him; they both had Donald to worry about right now.

“Goofy, do you have any idea how this could have happened to you?” Woody asked, looking the toy over.

“I guess I must’ve taken more damage from the fall than I realized.” Goofy stated, he gave Sora a nudge, as best he could, letting the boy know he was ready to get moving again.

“Goofy your leg…” Sora felt a pit in his stomach at the sight; he looked back at the body part still lying on the floor as he lifted Goofy up.

“It’s fine. I’m alright; we just gotta focus on finding Donald right now.”

“It is not alright, Goofy!” Woody spoke up; he reached down and picked up the discarded leg and put the metal screw that once held it together in his empty holster. “You’re damaged, and that could mean a lot of trouble if Sid finds you.”

“Donald comes first.” Goofy stated flatly, “if he’s not in Sid’s room than we’ll have to look somewhere else in the house. But we can worry ‘bout me once we find Donald.”

“Donald would disagree.” Woody retorted.

“Well, Donald isn’t here. He can say what he thinks when we find him!”

“You’re not going to listen, are you?” Woody sighed.

“No.” Goofy nudged Sora again and the two started moving.

Woody watched the two go, taking his time since they weren’t going anywhere fast now. He let out another heavy sigh. “You guys are so determined to stick together…” He turned back to Buzz, who was still staring at the ground. “Hey Buzz, you okay?” Woody said as he slowly approached the Space Ranger toy.

“It’s my fault, Woody.” Buzz looked up at him, guilt sitting heavily in his eyes. “If I hadn’t tried to fly, if I hadn’t had that argument with Goofy. He wouldn’t be in the condition he’s in now.”

“Hey stop it, Buzz.” Woody responded, “I don’t think Goofy is the kind of toy that holds a grudge. He’s more interested in finding his friend right now.”

Buzz looked back at the two toys walking towards Sid’s room. “I don’t think Goofy’s forgiveness will be enough, frankly.” Buzz started walking after Sora and Goofy, uninterested in continuing the conversation any further.

Goofy could feel Sora trembling as they finally reached the doorway to Sid’s room. Goofy turned his head, looking at the boy. “Sora, you okay?”

“We shouldn’t be here.” Sora whispered. “It’s not safe. What do we do if Sid comes back and we’re still in here, Goofy?”

“We won’t be long,” Goofy responded slowly, “We’ll see if Donald is anywhere in here while Woody tries out whatever he’s thought up.” As if in response to the name, a groan came from atop Sid’s desk.

“Sora? Goofy? Is that you?...”

“Donald!” Sora looked up, seeing his friend sitting alone on the desk. Sora began climbing the objects around the desk until he reached a point where he could leap onto the top.

Sora called to Woody, asking him to throw the Christmas lights up to him, so that he could pull Goofy up to the desk as well. “Sure thing, Sora! I need to get up there too, so could you pull me up as well?” Sora agreed and, after catching the Christmas lights thrown at him, used all his strength to pull Goofy and Woody up.

“Sora, Goofy! It’s good to see you’re both safe!” Donald smiled, but his happy demeanor disappeared as he saw Sora helping Goofy walk towards him. “Goofy! What happened? are you okay?!”

“Gwarsh, we should be asking you that, Donald! What happened to you?!”  Donald’s body was riddled with teeth marks and where what should have been his bright yellow webbed legs, was nothing. He had to steady his hands on the floor just to keep his round body from rolling over.

“Ah. Well, that huge dog got me. Then Sid found it chewing on me.”

“The dog got you…?” Sora’s voice was low as he heard his fears were correct. “But you were right behind Goofy and Buzz. And it was chasing me and Woody! Why were you the one it caught?”

“I couldn’t let it get you, Sora… So I threw my staff at it, I had to try to protect you. It was the only way to get its attention.” Donald said.

“So, it was all my fault…” Sora swallowed. “I’m sorry, Donald. I’m so sorry.” Sora couldn’t look Donald in the eye. he figured Donald must have blamed him for what happened to him.  He wondered if he hated him for that. _If only I had just managed to keep up with them, this never would have happened,_ Sora thought.

“Listen, guys. You have to be careful; Sid wants to experiment on us.”

“Experiment on us in what way?” Goofy asked.

“He wants to, uhh…” Donald hesitated to say. He wondered, if he told them to run away, would they listen and leave him behind? He concluded that they probably wouldn’t. “He wants to pull your legs out and replace them with mine.”

“What?!” Woody exclaimed, shocked at what he overheard. He turned around from whatever he was doing at the window to confirm that he heard it right. Sora noticed he was holding Buzz’s arm for some reason and heard a scream come from outside the window. “Wait no, guys! It’s not what it looks like!” Woody yelled back to whoever was outside it

“Why would he want to do that?” Sora asked, turning back to Donald

“I don’t know, because it sounds fun to him, I guess.” Donald responded.

“But, why us? Why hasn’t he tried this with some other toy before?” Sora asked.

“When he was putting me back together, he noticed that my parts snap into place. And he knows that you both have similar parts that also snap into place. He’s betting that we’ll all have parts that fit into each other.”

“I- I don’t believe it.” Sora said.

“That’s- that’s terrible.” Goofy said what everyone was thinking.

“That’s why we need to stay away from each other. I don’t want Sid treating either of you as disposably as he treats other toys.” Donald took a moment to look them both in the eye. “Neither of you deserve that. I don’t think anyone one deserves that.”

“Well gee Donald, I don’t want to just leave ya all by yourself.” Goofy said,

“Yeah!” Sora agreed, “we’ve just got to hide away from Sid until we find a way out of here!”

“Sid is already looking around the house for you two.” Donald said. “If he notices I’m missing as well, he’ll only look harder for us all.”

“I’m afraid I agree with Donald.” Woody said, walking away from the window. “Sorry guys, but my idea didn’t work out.”

“What was your idea?” Goofy asked.

“Andy lives next door to Sid.” Woody explained. “I was trying to get the toys in his room to grab the other side of the Christmas lights so we could try to climb across. And unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of time to waste anymore. Andy is moving in two days, so if we don’t get over there before then, we’ll be stuck here.

“Why didn’t your friends help you cross, then?” Sora questioned, unable to understand the cruelty of leaving a friend to suffer in Sid’s house.

 “Things are a little complicated back home, and they didn’t react well when they saw I only had Buzz’s arm. They thought I killed him.”

“Oh…” Sora’s voice dropped to a whisper. He looked at Woody and noticed he was missing something. “Hey Woody, what did you do with Goofy’s leg?”

“Hmm? Oh, I left it with Buzz” He turned to point at the still sullen space toy. But stopped when he saw that Buzz was surrounded by a horde of Franken-toys. “Buzz!” Woody jumped from the table towards the many toys, Sora supporting Goofy on his shoulder was right behind him.

Woody and Sora began shoving toys aside trying to reach Buzz within the pile of plastic. One toy reached out and snatched Buzz’s arm away from Woody, another one grabbed Goofy from Sora and pulled him into the swarm.

“Goofy!” Sora’s voice shot out in anger. “Give him back, you freaks!” Sora began punching and kicking the toys in his way trying to get further into the pack and closer to his friend.

Suddenly all the Franken-Toys scattered from the two toys they had previously surrounded. Sora and Woody stopped when they saw Goofy and Buzz sitting on the floor together, they were flexing their once removed limbs. They looked themselves over, checking to make sure they really had control over their formerly missing limbs.

“Guys, you’re okay!” Woody broke the silence and ran towards the two sitting on the ground.

“I think so!” Goofy chirped. Buzz didn’t respond, instead choosing to continue testing his arm.

Woody and Sora turned back to the Franken-toys, “hey, um. Sorry about before…” Sora began.

“Yeah, we’re sorry. We thought you were going to eat our friends.” Woody finished for him.

“Say, you haven’t seen a pair of webbed feet, have you?” Sora asked. “Our friend up there had his pulled out and can’t move anymore because of that.” Sora looked at the Franken-Toys, while continuing to point towards Donald. They were difficult to read, unlike Woody and the rest, their faces never seemed to move.

A moment later, Sid’s voice could be heard coming outside the door. The Franken-Toys scattered, dispersing into every nook and crevice they could fit into at the soonest sound of Sid’s voice. Sora and the others were just as panicked at the Franken-Toys, but lack of experience on where to hide left them unsure on where to hide.

“Buzz! Come on!” Woody shouted, trying to get Buzz to move. The return of his arm had lightened his mood only slightly, but it wasn’t enough to give him the drive to run and hide from Sid. “Fine! Let Sid dismantle you! See if I care!” Woody ran off, finding a Milk crate and hide himself inside it.

“C’mon on, Goofy!” Sora yelled running towards the underside of Sid’s bed.

“No, wait!” Woody interrupted from under the milk crate. “Sid is going to be looking for both of you, it’d be better if you split up!” Sora looked at Goofy,

“We can’t do that! I’m not letting anyone out of my sight again!”

“Sora, it’s okay…” Goofy whispered, “we’ll be in the same room, we just gotta wait ‘til Sid leaves. Then we can all meet up again.” Goofy gave Sora a gentle push towards Sid’s bed before turning around and running in the opposite direction.

Sora stumbled forward. He quickly turned around to argue but stopped as he heard Sid pushing open the door. Sora dived towards the underside of the bed, barely making it underneath the metal frame as Sid entered the room. Straining to pull himself, Sora crawled deeper into the darkness under the bed as his body stiffened in response to Sid’s appearance.

***

Hours had gone by since Sid entered the room and had gone to bed. Sora hated being stuck under the bed. Being stuck there alone left him bored but the fear of Sid suddenly looking underneath the bed kept him feeling on edge. Even if someone was with him, the darkness under the bed would have kept him from seeing their face. Making matters worse, Sora’s thoughts kept drifting to Donald and Goofy. The damage done to them was far worse than anything he had seen since he had begun traveling with them.

 _If I had just been able to keep up with them_ , Sora repeated the thought over and over again throughout the night. He didn’t want to be alone, but he wasn’t sure what Donald and Goofy thought of him anymore. _I could have done something, Donald wouldn’t be in the shape he is now if I had just kept up with the rest of them. At the very least, I could have stopped Goofy from falling._ Sora’s body shook his breathing shaky and coming out loud. _I’m the only one who came out uninjured, but everything that happened was my fault. I flew the ship when we were shot down! I yelled and woke the dog! I was too slow and let Donald get caught! I wasn’t even there to help Goofy talk to Buzz!!_ Sora’s thoughts raced through his head. He wiped his eyes trying to clear any tears that might have leaked out.

Sora examined his hand, confused at the lack of moisture on it. He rubbed again harder, still nothing. Harder again, nothing again. Woody’s words when he first woke up in Sid’s backpack burned in his mind. _Look at yourselves! You’re not from other worlds, you’re toys!_ Sora tried to take a firm deep breath, but he couldn’t maintain a steady intake of air for long before his breath started to waver once again. Sora looked down at the faded remains of the painted-on pocket on his leg. _It’s not a pocket, Sora. It's just a solid piece of plastic just painted to look like it has a pocket._ Sora wondered if he kept rubbing at his eyes, would they end up just as faded as the pocket? And if they did fade, would he still be able to see?

Woody’s statements felt more real to him now than ever. Sora wondered what Donald and Goofy thought of him. They might be his only friends. Sora wondered how they felt about what had happened. _Are they mad at me? I don’t blame them if they blame me for what happened._ Sora sat under the bed, continuing to subject himself to his painful thoughts. He finally stopped when he heard a sound behind him.

“Who’s there!?” Sora turned on his heel, searching the darkness for the source of the noise. Eventually one of the Franken-toys formed in his vision. The baby-headed one with metal limbs that he and the others saw when they first arrived in Sid’s Room. It didn’t mean to cause harm, but Sora still flinched at its appearance. A moment later, he noticed it was holding something.

It moved closer, offering what it held. Sora could barely see it in the darkness, only able to register it as a vague shape. He walked closer to it, trying to make out what it could be in the little light there was under the bed. It was cylindrical from where the toy was holding it, but further along it spread out almost flat and away at a ninety-degree angle. “Wait, are these…? Donald’s legs?!” The toy continued looking at Sora, reaching forward with the legs to offer them again. “Thank you…” Sora said as he reached forward and took the legs from the toy. It didn’t say a word. The toy took a moment to look Sora in the eye, then turned around and walked away, back into the darkness. “Not much for conversation, huh?” Sora whispered.

Sora walked back to the edge of the bed and looked towards Sid’s desk. The sun was beginning to rise, gentle rays of light reaching across the room. Sora wasn’t sure how much longer Sid would be asleep for, but if he could get over to the desk before Sid woke up, he could reattach Donald’s legs and get him someplace safe. According to Donald, they just snap into place. “Hang on, Donald. I’ll get you out of this.”

Sora’s took quiet steps forward, his body stiffened as he trekked towards the desk. Sora looked back seeing Sid’s sleeping figure on the bed above. For a moment Sora considered running back underneath the bed and every step he took made his body scream to stop and go motionless. But Sora found the strength to keep going. Eventually he passed the milk crate Woody was hiding inside of.

“Sora, what are you doing?” Woody whispered as Sora passed the milk crate he had hidden himself in.

“I found Donald’s legs, Woody.” Sora responded, “I’ve got to get them to him.”

“What?! No, what you need to do is hide and wait for Sid to leave!”

“I’ve come this far, I can’t go back now…” Woody tried to argue with Sora more, but Sora refused to listen and waste any more time, instead choosing to spend his waning energy to climb up the desk.

“Sora?” Donald whispered, “what are you doing here?” His eyes widened as he saw what was in Sora’s hand. The risen sun, now comfortable shining on them in a warm glow illuminated the legs in Sora’s hands.

“Donald, I’m sorry about everything. But I’m going to make it up to you.” Sora said, walking towards his friend. “Sid said they just snap back into place, right?”

“Sora, you shouldn’t be here…” Donald began.

“I’m here to help you Donald!” Sora tried to keep his voice down but found it increasingly harder from getting emotional. “I said I was sorry, I know it’s my fault that you’re hurt, so just let me try to help!”

Sid mumbled something in his sleep. Sora and Donald froze, watching to see if he was still asleep. Eventually, Sid rolled over in his bed, still sound asleep.

Donald looked back at Sora “Sora, I’m not mad. But, it’s really not safe right now, we can talk about this once Sid’s out of the room.”

“But if we reattach these we can get you away from here. Come with me under the bed, we can talk about everything once we’re down there.”

Donald sighed, “there’s no convincing you, is there?”

Sora flashed a grin. “Nope!” Sora placed the legs next to Donald, standing at the edge of the desk Sora studied the empty sockets they would be placed into. He tried to figure out how exactly Sid managed to put them back in. Sora doubted for a moment it was as easy as Donald said. Sora grabbed one of the legs and prepared himself to try and put them back into place.

A loud ringing came from nearby Sid’s bed. Sora jumped in shock, quickly spinning around Sora saw Sid rising from his bed. His eyes were still closed as he stretched, but his sudden wakefulness caused the stiffness that Sora had barely been able to fight off to increase tenfold. Turning back around Sora saw as Donald’s eyes, round in horror, slowly transition into the familiar frozen smile.

Sora could feel his body doing the same. Unable to continue holding the leg, it fell to the desk as Sora’s body grew more rigid.

Sora was losing his balance. He was tipping backwards off the desk. With the last of his strength, Sora reached out to Donald as he fell.

The sound of a small thump drew Sid’s attention towards his desk. He didn’t see anything near it that could have made the noise, so he assumed it must have been his imagination. Hopping out of bed, Sid made his way towards his desk. He saw the toy figure from yesterday sitting on his desk. “Right where I left you.” Sid said, trying to recall where he had left the other two he had found it with. To the side of the toy, Sid saw the pair of legs he had pulled from the toy. “I could’ve sworn I put those someplace else.” Sid walked closer to the desk, trying to remember when he last touched the plastic legs.

Sid let out a quick yelp of pain as he jerked his foot back, he looked down to see what he had stepped on. A smile spread on his face in recognition of one of the toys he was looking for.

Picking up the toy with the wild spiky brown hair, Sid looked the toy over. “So that’s where you’ve been. How’d I miss you lying there?” The confusion in Sid’s voice quickly evaporated. “You know… I think you’ve been looking down on your friend over there.” Sid pointed towards the legless toy sitting on his desk. “Let’s see if we can’t change that, can we?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In an older draft of this chapter I revealed that Hannah called Goofy, Mrs. Mildred. Which, according to Disney Wiki, was the name of his Aunt. Ultimately the dialogue didn't sound natural to me, so I just edited it out. But now you know, that Buzz = Mrs. Nesbit  
> Goofy = Mrs. Mildred
> 
> I'm catching up to everything I've prewritten, so expect the next chapter to come out in the next 5-10 years!  
> Also look forward to seeing some Riku and Kairi in the next chapter!


	5. Chapter 5

A horrible pain ripped through Kairi. Letting out a shriek, she fell from the table that she, Axel, and Merlin had been eating at. Axel and Merlin got up and ran to check on her, she was clutching at her heart and writhed on the floor.

“Kairi! What happened?! Are you alright?!” Axel crouched down next to her, unsure of what to do.

Kairi let out a guttural cry. A mix of sorrow and fear wailed out of her lungs as her heart constricted with pain in time to waves of emotion hitting her.

“Kairi talk to me!” Axel pleaded, hopping she’d be able to let him know what to do.

One hand still gripping at her heart, Kairi felt around for her legs. Squeezing them multiple times, as if to check that they were still there. “Where-? I can’t find…” She gasped delirously. Her eyes were an unfocused mess as they darted across the room seemingly seeing nothing. She flailed her legs kicking in every direction she could manage, occasionally banging her shins against the table she was once sitting at.

Making sure she wouldn’t accidentally hurt herself any further, Merlin lifted the table off the ground and proceeded to shrink it down and place it within his bag. The wizard wracked his brain, trying to think of anything he could do to help the girl.

“Kairi! C’mon, speak to me!” Axel yelled trying to break through to the girl, whose screaming had only become more intense. Merlin placed a hand on his shoulder. “Merlin, what do we-“

The wizard ripped the organization jacket off of Axel and hastily folded it before shoving it under Kairi’s head. Axel attempted to say something but Merlin hushed him. “I don’t need you both making a racket! Try and make sure she doesn’t hurt herself, would you?”

Some time passed before Kairi finally stopped thrashing about. Relief filled Axel as he saw her body begin to still. Seeing now that the worst was over, Merlin turned to Axel and asked him to watch her for a little while. Axel agreed, and although not much happened, Kairi herself barely stirred, he couldn’t look away. Fearful that any minute she would begin screaming again.

Merlin eventually returned with a blanket and a glass of water, letting Axel know that he was leaving again to prepare some more food for when she awoke. Merlin was gone for only a short time before Kairi began to make some noise.

“Hey, just try to relax, okay?” Axel said, seeing that the girl was waking up.

“What- what happened?” Kairi asked.

“I was kinda hoping you could tell me that. You just went wild, screaming and howling.”

“I- I don’t know, I just…” Kairi paused to catch her breath, her voice was raspy and sore. “I felt something again…” Kairi’s voice shook as she struggled to keep an even tone. “It was- It was different this time, Axel.”

“Different compared to what?” Merlin interrupted, arriving from the kitchen with a plateful of food.

Kairi hesitated, “I didn’t want you to worry…”

“I’m worried now.” Merlin responds.

“I’m- I’m sorry, Merlin.” Kairi looked away, she didn’t think it would get this bad. She didn’t know how bad to expect it to get, but she certainly didn’t expect it to burst from her like that.

Kairi struggled to pick herself up, her arms shook as she put weight on them. Getting the idea, Axel helped lift her up and sat her back at the table as Merlin brought it out of his bag and placed the plate on it.

“Kairi, you need to talk to Merlin about this. He might be able to help.” Axel pleaded. “Please, Kairi. This clearly isn’t just you being stressed out or whatever.”

Kairi stayed quiet, the only sound coming from her attempts to catch her breath. After a few more heavy breaths, Kairi finally spoke, unnaturally long pauses coming up whenever she found that she had gone too long without another breath. “Okay, okay. I guess it started three days ago, I didn’t think anything of it. I thought I was just stressed out…”

Merlin stroked his beard as Kairi continued to tell him about the strange feeling of loss that had been eating away at her since she woke up the other day and had apparently grown into a sudden heart attack.

“I didn’t want to say anything, because, well…”

Merlin looked at her with most sympathetic face he could muster. Urging her to go on.

“…Because I was worried people would think I wasn’t cut out for the upcoming fight. I’m tired of being left behind while Sora and Riku risk their lives.” Kairi finally concluded.

Still stroking his beard, Merlin closed his eyes as he considered his response. “Hmm,” a moment later he opened his eyes. “You might not feel like it. But you’ve made tremendous progress with the Keyblade, Kairi.” He reassured her.

“You really think so?” Kairi couldn’t find it in her to believe the words. Whatever had happened to her was proof enough that she was well in over her head, in her mind.

“Certainly.” Merlin smiled but let it vanish as he continued. “I just wish you had come to me about this sooner. You are a Princess of Heart, therefore you might have a stronger connection to the state of the worlds than most.”

“So, you think this feeling I’ve had might be connected to something else?”

“Indeed. I’m worried that something else is causing this. Perhaps I should ask Riku and the King if they’ve noticed anything, while they’re still in Radiant Garden.” Merlin looked Kairi and Axel over before standing up. “Now, I need the two of you to promise me you’ll behave while I’m gone, Okay?” Kairi and Axel had barely managed to say yes before Merlin was already gone in a puff of blue smoke.

***

A flash of blue smoke appeared before Riku and Mickey as they were leaving Ansem’s study. The two jumped back in shock.

“Aha, there you two are!” The Wizard stroked his white beard with his free hand, while tucking his wand into his robe. “I’ve looked everywhere on this world for you two.”

“Well gee, Merlin, We didn’t know you were looking for us. Hope everything is going well.” Mickey smiled at the old wizard.

“How are things going with Lea and Kairi’s training?” Riku added.

“Ah well, y’see the Keyblade training itself is going quite well. I’d even go so far as to say that Kairi and Lea will be able to give you and Sora a run for your munny by the time I’m done with them.” Merlin happily replied; his eyes seemed to sparkle as he spoke. “However, I wanted to talk to the two of you about the state of the worlds…” Merlin’s easy-going nature from before began to fade, “have the two of you noticed anything going on with the worlds? Anything unusual?”

Mickey looked back at Merlin, “unusual? In what way? Can’t say Riku and I have seen anything out of place, but we’ve mostly been cooped up in Radiant Garden since we left the Realm of Darkness.”

“It’s just a feeling Kairi has had recently. I’m trying to pinpoint what the cause of it might be. She believes it might just be something mundane. But I’m not convinced, it seems to have happened rather suddenly and I’m worried it might be tied to her being a Princes of Heart.”

 “Hmm, Sora might know more than us since he’s been out exploring the worlds.” Realization suddenly struck the King “Although… It’s been a little while since we’ve heard from him. We tried giving him a call but either his Gummi-phone is broken or he’s someplace that’s preventing him from making calls. Chip and Dale are currently trying to contact the Gummi Ship he’s on, but they haven’t given us an update since they’ve started, yesterday.”

“What if…” Riku spoke up, “maybe the fact that we can’t contact Sora and this feeling Kairi had are connected?” The implication hit him as soon as he finished the thought, and quickly attempted to backpedal on what he said. “I mean, knowing Sora it’s probably nothing he can’t take care of. But he does have a knack for getting into trouble.”

“Merlin, is there any way you could try getting in contact with Sora?” King Mickey asked.

“The last world we know he was at was a place he called Corona.” Micky said. “But he contacted us as they were leaving it…”

Merlin sighed “I’ll try to find a way to reach them… But let me know as soon as possible if you discover anything. I can’t just contact him telepathically, you know.” Mickey and Riku agreed, and in a flash of blue smoke, Merlin was gone again.

Turning to Riku, Mickey thought aloud. “Well, I guess we should give Chip and Dale a call. See how things are going on their end.”

“Yeah. Who knows? Maybe they’ve already found Sora and the others.” Riku said.

Digging out the Gummi-Phone from his pocket Mickey began dialing the numbers for the two engineers. “I sure hope so.” Mickey’s head drooped as he said it. “The organization, Aqua, the search for Ven and Terra, and now Sora and the others are missing. It feels like we just keep getting more problems and not enough solutions.”

The Gummi-Phone screen lit up with the image of Chip and Dale. Neither of which looking especially happy. “Your Majesty!” Chip called out in recognition.

“Hiya, Chip! So, how’s the search been going? Make any progress?”

“We’re sorry, Your Majesty.” Chip began, “we’ve been trying to make contact with the Gummi Ship all night.”

“Yeah, but we just can’t seem to find it.” Dale finished. “There should be a system on board that keeps us in contact with its location. But it’s just not showing up!”

“Oh no!” The words slipped from Mickey’s mouth before he could stop them, taking a moment to compose himself, Mickey continued. “What wouldja say coulda caused this?”

“Worst case scenario would probably be that they were vaporized, ship and all.” Dale said, Mickey and Riku both swallowed at the sound of this.

“Best, and most likely, case would probably be that Goofy spilled his coffee on it, or maybe Sora accidentally hit it with a water spell while practicing.” Chip said, shoving Dale out of the way. “If it’s short circuiting that would explain why it’s not communicating.

 “Welp, I kinda figured the explanation would be somewhere between those two answers.” Mickey said. “But neither of those seem to help much in narrowing down what mighta happened.”

“Is there anything that could help us find Sora and the others?” Riku asked.

“Well, before you both called. Dale and I were trying to decode the last transmission we received from the Gummi Ship.” Chip answered.

“What do you mean?” Mickey asked.

“Well, we were looking at the record, trying to see if that could clue us into where they are. The latest entries are a mess of random data. Which could mean that the device short circuited and sent out misfiring electric currents, or…”

“Or a massive blast of energy from an enemy overloaded the system.” Dale interrupted.

“Would you stop saying that already!?” Chip yelled.

“Has something like that ever happened before?” Riku asked.

“Laser Cannon’s have had a history of messing with the Gummi Ship’s instruments,” Dale continued, “but never this badly, before.”

“Does the data say when they were last in contact?”

“We got a mess of location coordinates three days ago, before the ship went silent. But we think that it’s just random junk data caused by whatever happened, the locations they give us probably won’t help.”

Riku turned to Mickey, “Did Merlin say when Kairi began to feel something was wrong?”

“Hmm, I don’t think so. He only said it happened recently…” Mickey said. “You still worried they might be connected?”

“I am, and if we can’t find them through Merlin’s magic or the Gummi Ship’s logs, then maybe she would be our best bet at finding them.”

“You might be right, Riku. She has the strongest connection to Sora, so maybe she could point us in the right direction!” The two Keyblade masters looked back to the Gummi-Phone. “Thanks for looking into it for us, guys! We’re going to give Merlin and the others a visit and contact you later.”

“Good luck Your Majesty!” Chip and Dale saluted The King and Riku before they disappeared from the screen.

An uneasy filled the two Keyblade masters as they made their way towards Merlin’s house. Riku continued to hope that any minute now, Sora would call him up letting everyone know he was alright. Walking on, Riku whispered under his breath.

 “Sora, you’d better be in one piece…”

***

Sora sat alone on Sid’s desk. Normally he hated being secluded or left alone. However he couldn’t bear the thought of facing Donald or Goofy right now. Memories of Sid trying to force Donald’s legs into his sockets flashed in his mind. Sora and Donald may have shared the same type of joints, but the size difference made trying to force the legs into the other’s joints nearly impossible. The force that Sid used was so great that, for a moment back then, Sora thought that Sid might actually succeed. Worse yet, towards the end, Sora hoped he would succeed just to make it stop.

“Sora… Ya okay?” Sora turned to see Goofy had managed to climb up the desk.

“Sora, please talk to us.” Donald had apparently found a way up too.

“Guys, please, not now.” Sora responded.

“Sora?” Goofy began a question.

“I said not now! I just want to be alone…” Sora interrupted.

Donald and Goofy looked at Sora, his body trembled and his eyes were clamped shut. “Sora, are you okay?” Goofy reached out.

“I hate it!” Sora yelled, “You’d think if I couldn’t take it anymore that I’d at least be able to cry! But I can’t even do that!” Sora squeezed his eyelids tighter and smacked his hands against his head, hoping some liquid would leak out of his eyes.

“Sora, please don’t do that…” Donald looked sorrowfully at Sora.

“Yeah, we gotta think positive, we’ll find some sorta way out this house. Then it’s only a matter of time before we find the gummi ship!”

“I can’t take it anymore! You guys always used to say ‘no sad faces’, right? But for a moment, I don’t know, I hoped that if I was genuinely sad maybe I could prove it to myself, a toy can’t cry, right? Well I guess I am right, huh?!” Sora clacked his hands against his head again. Not even pain came to him, just the taunting sound of plastic on plastic reminding him of his situation. He clacked them against his head again and again. Striking harder with each attempt as he started shouting. “I hate it! I hate this place, I hate being a toy, I hate how useless I am, I hate my-” Sora stopped himself, hoping Donald and Goofy wouldn’t notice what he was about to say.

Donald and Goofy looked at Sora as an awkward silence surrounded them. Goofy was the first to break the silence “You don’t really mean that, do ya Sora?” Goofy waited for a response, but Sora remained quiet. “Cause you’re not useless…”

“Then what am I?! I couldn’t do anything when Sid fed the alien to his dog, the Keyblade didn’t work when I tried to cast magic with it, and remember when that dog started chasing us? All I could do was run! And now look at the condition Donald’s in and don’t forget about your leg, it’s all my fault. I should have done something, but I didn’t, I couldn’t.” 

“That’s enough, Sora!” This time Donald spoke. “You might have felt helpless, but so did we. That dog was right behind you, the only thing I could do to stop it from catching up to you and Woody was to draw its attention towards me!”

“I didn’t ask you to do that for me!”

Donald recoiled at that, a second later he was filled with indignant anger, “That’s not fair! I couldn’t just watch! And what about last night?! I told you to hide last night! Why don’t you listen to anybody?!”

“Uhh, Donald don’tcha think that’s a little too much?” Goofy tried to mediate his two friends, but they weren’t interested in listening.

“He thinks he can go around throwing himself into danger like our feelings don’t matter!” Donald continued. “Why did you even come out last night?!”

“I was trying to make it up to you!”

“What are you talking about?! What are you trying to make up for?!”

Sora was taken aback. Was he making fun of him? “Do you want me to spell it out?! Fine! I’m sorry for everything! I’m sorry that I’m the reason that you ended up getting caught by the dog and Goofy lost his leg, okay?! Just leave me alone! I’ll stop trying to make it up to you, if that’s what you want! I’m sorry ok?! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

Donald and Goofy both looked on in silence as Sora continued to mutter his apologies. Goofy eventually spoke up, “Please stop apologizing Sora.”

“Yeah, we don’t blame you for any of what happened. We never did, we were just worried about you.” Donald said. “I’m sorry I yelled.”

Sora couldn’t bring himself to look at the two of them. “Just leave me alone. Please.” he added at the end, his voice was barely above a whisper. The two toys got the idea, and started to walk back to the edge of the desk. They _both_ walked.

Only now did Sora notice that Donald’s legs were reattached. He thought of asking how. But he didn’t have the energy to begin another conversation. He couldn’t bear looking at Donald and Goofy anymore. Maybe they really didn’t blame him for what had happened, but he still blamed himself. Every time he looked at the two of them he saw how battered and broken they had been.

 He couldn’t help but wonder when he had last slept. Sora would give just about anything to have a couple hours of blissful unconsciousness. Just to escape his own thoughts and the world around him.

A dreamless sleep.

That’s all Sora wanted. What would he have to do to have that? He would happily give up one of his arms, maybe both. He wasn’t sure at this point. He already lost both legs, what did he care if he lost an arm too? Even with all his limbs attached he couldn’t fight back against Sid. What scared Sora was that the idea of losing more limbs pleased him. It was a small, yet undeniable, pleasure. He had been so useless before. The thought that he could have an excuse, to no longer be able to even try to fight back. That giving up would not only be an acceptable option, but the only option, sounded so nice.

Sora could hear another person, no not person. Sora could hear another toy climbing up to Sid’s desk. Sora hoped that whoever it was, they would leave him alone. He was too busy fantasizing of being left limbless and helpless.

“Sora.” The voice was soft and weak, but it still carried the confident, authoritative tone underneath it. Sora looked up to see Buzz. “I apologize for eavesdropping on your earlier conversation.”

“You heard that?” Sora’s voice was still lifeless and quiet. Unable to bring forth the engery to feel embarrassed.

“I didn’t mean to listen, but… Well, you were both quite loud.”

“Hmm.” Sora hummed, hoping Buzz would get the idea and leave soon.

“I just wanted to say that I’m sorry…”

“Huh?” Sora looked back up at Buzz, unsure what he was talking about.

It was my fault that Goofy got hurt. As a space ranger of Star-Command I should also have been more responsible and kept Donald in my sights.”

“So you still think you’re-”

“No. I know better now. But I thought I was back then and should have done more. But I was more interested in myself than others.”

“I see…” Sora remained silent for a moment. Not sure whether he should ask Buzz the question that he had been trying to ignore. “Hey Buzz?”

“Yes?”

“Do you remember visiting other worlds?”

“I do.”

“And on each of these worlds, you meet people and were forced to confront challenges on each them too, right?”

Buzz sighed as he forced himself to relive moments that never happened. “Yes, I did.”

“When I first found myself here, I wondered why things had to go so differently compared to all those other times.” Sora’s voice shook. “I could take control of the situations I found myself in. I could fight back, and each time I did. I would win.”

Buzz nodded along listening, letting Sora say whatever he needed to say.

“But not anymore. I’m afraid to ask, but….” Sora hesitated and his voice began to shake. “Am I still me? Am I still Sora?”

It took Buzz a minute to respond. Trying to search for the right words. “I don’t know. I’m sorry Sora, I’m still trying to figure that out for myself.

“Oh…” Sora’s head drooped back down to the floor

“But, I know what kind of a person you are right now.” As Buzz spoke Sora returned his attention to him. “You’re a good person. You’re determined and loyal to your friends. If one of them is hurt, you seem to feel it just as strongly. And if one might be in trouble, you single mindedly focus all of your attention on finding and helping them.” Buzz walked towards Sora and placed a hand on his shoulder. “I don’t know who you were before we found you in Sid’s backpack. But, if you were even half as brave as you were since I’ve meet you, you would still be greater than most of the people I’ve meet in Star-Command.”

“But I’ve only made things worse!”

Buzz firmly grasped Sora’s other shoulder with his free hand. “You’ve done what you could. And trust me, they’re not mad at you. They’re worried and you’ve surrounded yourself with thoughts that are far harder to penetrate than the plastic you’re made of. They’re trying to reach you, but you’re not letting them in!”

Sora stayed silent. Letting what Buzz said sink in.

“I know what kind of answer you wanted, it’s the same answer I wanted for myself. But I’m still trying to find the answers for myself. I’m sorry.” Buzz looked away. “Maybe it would be a better question for Woody. I’ll ask him to come up and talk to you.”

“No, please, just let me have some time.”

“He’s going to be up here when he’s done searching the room.” Buzz warned. “Everybody’s been looking for your legs, well both yours and Donalds.

 “Oh. I wondered how he got those back.” Sora said. “Could I have some time to think.” Buzz’s eyes lingered on Sora for a while longer. “Please…” Sora asked again.

Finally Buzz relented. “Alright, just try to rest, okay?” Standing up, Buzz climbed back down the desk, giving one last glance at the legless toy sitting on the table.

***

“I thought I’d find you out here.” Axel appeared from among the branches of the enchanted forest. “You know Merlin doesn’t want you wandering too far?”

Kairi turned away from the setting sun, “Yeah, I know. This spot just reminds me of where Riku, Sora, and I would watch the sunset back at the islands.” Turning back to look at the sun, Kairi continued. “Is Merlin still in his study?”

“Yeah, and he still won’t say what he’s doing in there.” Axel complained.

“He said it might have something to do with my recent episode…”

“That’s good, right? Maybe he’s figured out what’s wrong.”

“Yeah, but it bothers me that he won’t say anything more than that…” Kairi brought her knees up to her chest and rested her chin against it.

“Well, when I told Merlin I was going out to find you he said someone you know is coming by to visit.” Axel smiled hoping it would cheer Kairi up.

“Really? Who?”

“Well…” Seeing that he grabbed her attention away from the sunset, Axel’s smile grew wider. “He said it was- Oh! Speak of the devil.” Axel stood up and began walking away “I’ll give you two some time alone”.

“Huh?” Kairi stood up and watched Axel go, a bit further away an old friend stepped into the clearing. “Riku?”

Normally Kairi would be excited to see Riku again, but he had such a serious expression. She worried that he had bad news.

“Riku, it’s been awhile!” Kairi searched for something to talk about. “How’s the search for Master Aqua?” Kairi, hoped that was the right thing to ask about. Maybe the search wasn’t going well and that’s why he looked like he was in a foul mood. But instead he looked a little surprised at the topic. Kairi quietly concluded that wasn’t the reason for his moody look.

“Uh, it’s going well… You know how Mickey gets, he’s always trying to make sure we’re completely finished with everything in the Realm of Light. So, we haven’t tried going back yet.”

“I see, so then what do I owe the pleasure of you visiting me today?” Kairi smiled, hoping it would set Riku at ease, but, unexpectedly, the question seemed to cause him to clench his teeth.

“Kairi, Merlin told us you’ve had a bad feeling recently. Could you try telling me about it?”

“Oh, that? Well, I don’t understand it much myself. I just had this terrible feeling that I’d lost something, or maybe someone. I told Axel about it first, before I told Merlin. But I haven’t really thought about it much, I used to think it was just stress.” Kairi wasn’t sure how much Merlin had told Riku and the king, and she still felt embarrassed about what happened earlier. So she kept the near-seizure she had to herself.

 “When did you have this feeling, Kairi?” His voice was low and humorless as he asked the question.  Kairi took a step back. She didn’t expect Riku to have this kind of reaction. She didn’t expect Riku to get so emotional for no reason, unless there was a reason to, unless he wasn’t telling her something.

“Riku, has something happened?”

“Please, just tell me when it occurred to you. I’ll let you know why I’m asking as soon as you tell me.” He looked at her pleadingly.

“Riku, this sounds serious… Have you told Sora about this? He’d be able to help you. You know, you don’t have to rely on doing everything alone anymore.” Riku clenched his teeth at the sound of his friend’s name, and his next words came out as a whisper.

“Kairi, please. I need to know when this feeling came, it might be related to… Something.” Again, he gave her that pleading look, what did Riku mean, related to what? Kairi wanted to know more, but she supposed she’d just have to take his word for it that he’d tell her what was going on after she told him about the feeling she had.

“Alright Riku.” She sighed; she wasn’t looking forward to reliving what she had felt. “It happened about three days ago; a little after breakfast had started. Honestly, it felt like a wave of loneliness washed over me. I thought I was just feeling homesick or maybe that I missed you guys. But, it didn’t go away. I just felt like I was stuck in a deep pit I couldn’t get out of. So I tried to write a letter to Sora. I thought maybe if I pretended I was talking to him I’d feel better, but that didn’t work. I couldn’t find the words I wanted to say. I know it sounds silly, because I was pretending to talk to someone who wasn’t there, but…” She suddenly felt like she knew how to describe this feeling she’d had for the past three days. “It felt like the link between us, connecting us between the different worlds. It wasn’t there.”

Kairi suddenly wondered where Sora was. Riku was trying to act stoic, but if Sora had seen him half as worried as he looked to her now. He would have bolted from any world to make sure he was okay. “Riku? Where is Sora?”

“I don’t know…”

“Well, have you given him a call? Merlin’s told me about the Gummi-Phone, you both should have one.” Kairi swallowed, waiting for his response. She hoped that Riku had simply forgotten about that device. Her hope died at his response.

“Yeah, I tried…” Kairi tried to think up another question, but before she could, Riku spoke up again. “I got an error message, so Mickey and I contacted Chip and Dale. But they couldn’t get a hold of the Gummi Ship that Sora is traveling in. So when I heard that you had felt something akin to a bad omen, I had to see if you felt it on the same day Sora’s ship stopped communicating with Chip and Dale”

“And what day was that?” Kairi was pretty sure she already knew, but she had to know for sure.

“The last transmission log from the Gummi Ship was three days ago.”

Kairi suddenly stood up, feeling a little dizzy as she processed what had happened. Was that feeling Sora? Was he alright? She tried to take a step to catch herself but immediately started to tip over instead.

“Kairi!” Riku shouted in concern as he steadied her. “You should just sit down.You must be tired.” But Kairi wasn’t interested in resting, she felt more restless than she had ever felt before.

“Where is he?! What was his last known position?!”

“He last checked in with us after departing from a world he called Corona. We don’t know where he went after that, but…”

“But what?! We can’t just sit around, we have to look for him!”

“I was going to say, that we need your help. You have the strongest connection to him if we start where he left from, I’m hoping that we might have a chance to follow that connection to him.”

“What? Were you going to ask me if I wanted to come?! Of course I’m coming, I’ll do whatever you think will get us to Sora!”

 Riku smiled. “Good, then we’d better head out now.” Riku led the way to where he and Mickey had left their Gummi Ship.

***

Sora spent the hours thinking about what Buzz had said to him. Buzz had left Sora with a lot to think about, enough so that by the time Sora was sick of replaying the conversation in his head a light drizzle had begun pattering against the window by Sid’s desk. The sun had begun to set behind dark clouds by the time Woody had climbed to the top of Sid’s desk.

“How are you doing, Sora?” Woody asked. Taking Sora’s silence as permission to keep on talking Woody continued. “I’m sorry… We still haven’t found either of your… well, you know.”

Sora didn’t respond. He couldn’t tell if he was disappointed that they couldn’t find what Sid had done with his legs, or glad that he still had the option to just stay on the desk doing nothing. Regardless the choice had been made for him, and Sora found himself enjoying being stuck where he was.

“Sora, are you okay? I heard you and Donald having an argument earlier and Buzz said he talked with you…”

“I’m fine!” Sora snapped. “Sorry, I mean, I’m fine. Really.” Sora said again, this time calmer, or sadder. Maybe weaker? Woody couldn’t decide how to describe it.

“Hey, its fine! A lot has happened to you in a very short amount of time.” Woody said. “I just wanted to ask while we still have some time about what you’re going to do once we’re out of here.”

Sora stayed quiet. But this time Woody waited for his response. “I don’t know… My original plan was to find a way off this world, but that doesn’t seem likely anymore.”

“Sora…” Woody looked the toy, no, the boy. He looked the boy over. He was lost. “Come with me and Buzz back to Andy. You’d be welcomed there, all the toys wood love you. Heck, Andy would love you!”

“What makes you so sure?” Sora replied, head down and staring at the floor he sat on. The thought of being someplace safe and loved seemed so unlikely now. The only people he had were Donald and Goofy everyone else was a lie.

“Why wouldn’t he love you?! You’ve all got those cool accessories, Donald’s staff, Goofy’s shield, and your key sword-“

“KeyBlade,” Sora corrected.

“Right, KeyBlade.” Woody repeated, “The point is, Andy would love to play with all of you!”

“Even me? Even though I’m broken?” Sora asked.

“Hey don’t worry about it! I’m sure mom will get you fixed. There’s probably more of you at the store, so there’ll be plenty of spare parts.”

“She’ll probably just replace me with another Sora.”

“No, I won’t let that happen.” Woody stated, “I’ve seen and met a lot of toys in Andy’s room and we never leave a toy behind.”

“Really?” Sora stuttered, “I mean living as Andy’s toy would be different. It’s not exactly the kind of life I expected to have when I first met you and Buzz.”

“Trust me, Sora, you’ll love it.” Woody promised, “Andy’s a good kid, and he loves all his toys.” Woody reached over and placed a hand on Sora’s shoulder. “Remember what’s written on my boot? Andy writes his name on us so he won’t lose us, because losing us is the worst thing possible to him.”

“That… That sounds nice.” Sora admitted. Sora was ready to say it. It hurt a little, he felt like he was betraying everyone he could remember as he said the words. But Sora reminded himself that he couldn’t actually betray someone who didn’t exist. “Sure thing, Woody. I’d be happy to be one of Andy’s toys.” For the first time since finding himself in Sid’s house Sora smiled. A hopeful look to the future shone from his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought pretty hard about whether or not I was actually going to swap legs between Sora and Donald, when I first wrote the outline to this story. But ultimately I decided against it, I think I've checked the body horror box well enough that actually going that far would be gratuitous, at least in my mind. I don't want this to turn into a Sora torture porn. But I did want to try my hand at writing the body horror that would come from suddenly discovering you're a toy with all the problems that come from that.  
> One thing I did know well before writing the first draft of this chapter was that I wasn't going to show the actual scene of Sid pulling apart Sora and trying to force Donald's legs into his sockets. Again I didn't want to turn this into a Sora torture porn. And besides, sometimes less is more, and hopefully I did an alright job at proving that saying true.
> 
> Let me know what you think in the comments. I always make sure to respond to them, even if it takes me awhile sometimes.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took a little longer than I meant it too. But classes, huh? watcha gonna do? ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> I've also started posting this story to fanfiction.net and apparently you can upload an image as a cover for your story there. So I whipped a little something together in paint.net and put it in chapter one on this website, so you guys can see it too.

Kairi was holding on to someone’s hand, their grip was weak but Kairi held onto it with all her might. She was determined not to lose whoever it was she was holding on to.

“Don’t let go!” Kairi yelled. She could feel the person she was holding on to being pulled away by the wind as it whipped and screamed around them. “Just hold on! I’m right here!”

“I can’t…” Whoever it was she was holding on to, their voice was weak and distorted. “I can’t hold on any longer.” Their grip went slack and nearly slipped from Kairi hand.

Struggling to keep her hold, Kairi yelled to the person once more. “Just hold on, I’m right here!”

“Where were you...?” The voice asked. “Where were you when I needed you?”

“I’m sorry! I’m here now.”

“No, you’re not. You were never really there.” The voice responded. “You’re not real. The sooner I give you up, the sooner I can heal. That’s why I’m giving you up, why I have to give you up. Goodbye Kairi.”

Kairi couldn’t believe what she had heard, “Please, no. I’m here, I’ve always been here. Remember what I told you? Wherever you go, I’m always with you! Please! Answer me, Sor-”

Kairi nearly jumped out of bed. She was covered in a hot sweat, as she focused on the dream she’d had, desperate to keep the memory of it fresh in her mind before the fog of wakefulness erased it.

“Who was that…?” Kairi asked herself. She couldn’t picture a face, but she could remember the feeling of holding on to someone’s hand and the familiarity of their voice. “I was going to say their name. But what was it?”

“Hey Kairi, we’re here.” Riku rounded the corner into the room Kairi had been sleeping in. He noticed the sweat she was drenched in. “Hey, are you okay?”

“Yeah, just a bad dream. That’s all.” She responded, trying to shake the ominous feeling the dream left her with. “Anyway, we’re at Corona?”

“Yep, come take a look.” Riku led the way to the cockpit. From out the window Kairi could see a world with a giant tower shooting out of it. But what really caught her eye were the thousands of paper lanterns flying out of the world.

“This is Corona? It’s beautiful.” Kairi was in awe as the soft glow from the lanterns enveloped her and Riku.

“Yeah, Sora’s been holding out on us. He didn’t really bring this place up much when he called me and Mickey up.”

Riku turned to look at Kairi. “Anyway, the rest is up to you now. Just reach out with your heart, and tell me which way we should start looking.”

Kairi felt out for Sora’s heart. Nothing came to her. “Hmm, weird.” Kairi whispered, she tried to imagine she was writing a letter to him, the way she did back at Merlin’s forest. But still nothing came to her. She tried to think about Sora, his brown hair, his blue eyes.

She could describe him, but she was having trouble visualizing him, _feeling him_. She tried harder, not brown hair but chesnut and he didn’t just have blue eyes, they were reflections of the sky at its most piercing blue. She recalled how she would always see him lying out on the beach, usually snoozing away with no worries.

Why couldn’t she picture him? She could list out facts about him, or describe every last detail about him. But actually picturing him was proving impossible, and when her heart reached out to him it came back empty.

“Kairi?” Riku was worried, she had been silent for a while now. “Is everything alright?”

She lifted her head and looked directly at him. “No, Riku. I can’t- I can’t feel him.” Tears welled up as she considered the implications. “Are we too late? Please tell me he’s still out there. Please tell me he’s going to be alright!”

***

“Sure thing, Woody. I’d be happy to be one of Andy’s toys.” Sora smiled at Woody. For the first time since finding himself on this world, Sora looked forward to the future.

 “I’m glad to hear it, Sora. Now we need to find a way out of here.” Woody brought a hand to his chin as he considered what to do. “Donald, Goofy, and Buzz are still searching the room for your legs. So once we find those we’re going to have to sneak out of here.”

Sora tried to look off the desk to see if he could find Donald and Goofy below. His lack of mobility was getting in the way as he tried to perform the simple maneuver. Turning back to Woody Sora asked, “Could I try and help? I haven’t been much use for today.”

“I think under the circumstances, what you’ve been doing is fine.” Sora continued to stare at Woody. “But maybe we _should_ get you off the desk before Sid gets back.” Woody gently lifted Sora onto his shoulder. “Try to hold on to me, it could be a challenge to climb down with a second person.”

***

Buzz was about to look behind Sid’s dresser. He’d been considering the possibility that the body part that he and the others were looking for had fallen behind here for a while now, and no one had found them yet.

“S’cuse me, Buzz. Can I talk to you?” Buzz turned around to see Goofy standing behind him. “I heard what you said to Sora.”

“I see,” Buzz walked towards Goofy. “Goofy I wanted to apologize to you as well.”

“Hmm? What for?” Goofy asked turning his head on its side.

“For threatening you, of course.” Buzz’s voice was the same confident commanding tone it always was, but Goofy’s reaction to the question rattled the space ranger, adding a slight uncertainness to his voice.

“Well gee, Buzz. I didn’t hold a grudge or nothin’!” Goofy’s voice was a jovial tone Buzz was not used to hearing from Goofy. Sora and Donald would have recognized it as his usual speaking voice on other worlds, but recent events had kept Goofy from speaking as he usually would. “You were going through a lot at the time!”

“It’s still no excuse. I should have behaved better.”

“Nonsense, Buzz! Anyone’s reaction would have been the same, but…” Goofy’s voice trailed off. Back into the seriousness that Buzz was accustomed to hearing from the toy. “I just wanted to come by and say thank you.”

“What for?” Buzz arched an eyebrow at Goofy. He couldn’t recall doing anything for him, in fact he still felt guilty over the state Goofy had been in after the argument he’d had with him.

“Thank you for what you said to Sora… He’s been having trouble adapting to life here. We all have been, I suppose.” Goofy looked back at the desk where Woody and Sora were having a conversation. “I guess I didn’t realize how much he’d been hurting, or how dark of a place he’d fallen.”

Buzz chuckled before placing a hand on Goofy’s shoulder. “Woody was _absolutely_ right about you.” Goofy had that confused look again. “He said you weren’t the kind of toy to hold a grudge. He even said you would be too busy making sure your friends were okay to hold a grudge.”

“Gwarsh, am I that easy to predict?”

“I wouldn’t worry about it.” Chuckled Buzz. Out of the corner of his eye, Buzz saw Woody descending the desk. Sora gripped onto his shoulder as the cowboy continued to climb down.

Goofy, noticing Buzz’s attention had drifted away, turned around to see what he was looking at. He jumped in shock as soon as he noticed Sora coming down with Woody.

“Easy does it, there.” Woody said as he touched the floor. Turning around from the leg of the desk; he saw Goofy barreling towards him.

“Sora!” Goofy yelled as he skidded to a stop in front of Woody and Sora. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Yeah, I’m alright,” Sora said, still hanging onto Woody’s shoulder. “I’m sorry about what happened up there. But I’ve accepted what I am now. I was still hoping I wasn’t a toy when I talked to you and Donald.” Sora looked at Goofy, the concern seemed to drip from his face as he stared at Sora.

Goofy was skeptical. Sora was a wreck of emotions last time Goofy saw him, and now he was claiming to be at peace with his plastic fate. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah,” Sora nodded. His voice was quieter than normal, lacking the usual boundless enthusiasm it normally had. But it also lacked the emotional distress in his voice from the last time Goofy spoke to him. “I talked to Buzz. He helped me realize that I’m still me. Even if everything else wasn’t real. And besides…” Sora gestured to Woody as best he could while still hanging off his shoulder. “Woody’s offered us a place in Andy’s room.”

“Really?” Goofy looked at Woody to confirm what he heard.

Woody placed Sora on the ground before addressing Goofy, “It’s true. We might not have known each other for very long, but I can’t let good toys like you three get left out on the street.”

“I’ll have to tell Donald, he’s gonna be so relieved to know we’ve got a place to stay now.” Goofy said.

“Where is he, by the way?” Buzz looked around the room for him.

“Oh, he’s just looking through Sid’s night stand.  He’s still lookin’ for Sora’s parts.” Goof y casually replied.

“Alright then,” Woody said, “Goofy, can you let Donald know Sora’s down here now? Buzz and I will hide him under the bed, for now.”

***

It had taken him awhile, but Donald finally managed to push the bedside drawer open. It was the only place left that Donald could think of that might be hiding Sora’s legs. If it wasn’t in here, Donald was certain Sid must have moved them to a different room.

His suspicions turned out to be correct, or, rather, half correct. As he looked in and found one of Sora’s legs lying in the drawer. “Well, one is better than none…” Donald said quietly to himself.

Donald heard Goofy calling his name just as he hopped in the drawer to pick up the leg.

“Donald? You still up here?” Goofy worried that Donald might have disappeared somewhere without telling anyone. “Where’d you go, Donald?”

“I’m right here, Goofy!” Donald yelled back. Anxiety fled from Goofy at the sound of his friend’s voice and ran towards where he heard it coming from.

“So how’s the search going” Goofy said as he approached the opened drawer.

“Why don’t you tell me?” Donald said, proudly holding the object of his search out to Goofy.

“You found it! Or, well, I guess you found one of them.”

“One is better than none!” Donald repeated what he said to himself earlier, a little annoyed at Goofy’s lack of appreciation. “It’s more than anyone else has found!”

“Hmm, Guess you’re right about that, Sora’ll certainly be glad to have it back.” Goofy marveled at the plastic leg in front of him for a moment before he remembered why he came up in the first place. “Oh yeah! I was going to tell you that Sora came down.”

“He what?!” Donald jumped out of the drawer to look around the room for Sora.

Goofy stifled a laugh, “Woody and Buzz are hiding him under the bed right now, so Sid won’t find him later.” Donald turned back to Goofy, “Woody even offered us a place in Andy’s room.”

“I don’t like the idea of leaving him alone any longer than we already have. Let’s continue this conversation with him.” Donald said as he started climbing down the side of the bed.

***

Sora heard the sounds of shuffling from the bedsheets above him. Moments later he saw Donald and Goofy drop down at the side of the bed. “Hey, Donald.” Sora greeted.

“Sora, are you feeling better? Last time we saw you, you looked pretty out of it.” Donald asked checking Sora for any sign of the previous emotional state he saw him last in.

“I’m fine now, Donald. I just needed to talk to Buzz and Woody about some stuff.” Sora smiled, “Oh, yeah! Did Goofy tell you yet? Woody’s offered us a spot in Andy’s room.”

Donald observed Sora as he talked, curious if he could have really bounced back so quickly. If Sora _was_ faking the optimism that seemed to radiate off him, Donald couldn’t see it. “Yeah, Goofy told me back on the bed.” Now that Donald wasn’t studying Sora’s face so intently, he noticed that Woody and Buzz were nowhere to be seen. “Say, where’d the other two run off to?”

“Who? Woody and Buzz? They’re out looking for my parts right now. Buzz said he was about to check behind the dresser before Woody helped me down.”

“Ahh, I wish they’d stuck around a little longer” Donald said shaking the toy part he’d found in Sid’s night stand. “Cause guess what I found…” Donald practically sang as Sora’s eyes went wide.

“No way! Donald, you found one of them?” A small part of Sora was prepared to be left legless until he and the others got to Andy’s house.

“Hey, who do you think you’re dealing with, hmm?” Donald pounded on his chest proudly before handing it over to Sora.

Sora examined the leg now that it was in his hands. “This is weird, holding my own leg like this. I don’t think I’ll ever get use to it. Let’s hope Andy is as gentle with his toys as Woody says, huh?”

“Hey, I lost both of mine, too.” Donald said, reminding Sora. “You don’t need to tell me it’s not a pleasant experience.”

“Gwarsh, we all seemed to have leg problems at one point in here. Hope the experience hasn’t weakened ‘em too much.” Goofy said.  “I’d hate to think we’ll need to worry about our legs falling out often, once were out of here.”

“Hey, now! Let me celebrate getting it back, before for you start making me freak out about the future.” Sora was actually excited, he wasn’t going to let anyone or anything bring him down now. “C’mon guys! Help me get this reattached, I don’t want to be stuck sitting around like this forev-” Sora stopped himself, as he examined the sole of his foot.

“What’s the matter, Sora?” Goofy asked, the boy seemed fixated on his shoe.

“I just had a thought. On the bottom of Woody’s boot is Andy’s name.”

“And you were thinking if we become Andy’s toys he’ll do the same to us too?” Donald wondered if Sora was really that desperate to belong to someone already.

“No, actually...” Sora responded. “There’s already a name there…”

“Huh? Whose name is it?” Goofy asked leaning forward.

Sora rubbed his eyes gently. Careful to not risk rubbing the painted eyes off, but strong enough to hopefully have fixed whatever was wrong with them. Sora looked at the bottom of the shoe again. The name was still written on it.

“C’mon Sora! Answer the question, whose name is it, already?” Donald demanded.

“It’s Kairi’s name” Sora said, pointing the flat of his foot at Donald and Goofy to prove it. “Is this some kind of joke? Cause it’s not funny!”

The two toys looked at the foot unable to offer an explanation. “Gee, Sora. I didn’t write nothin’ on it.” Goofy said. Sora looked at Donald, he was the one who found the leg so perhaps he’d be able to explain it.

“I didn’t do it.” Donald said, sounding mildly offended.

“Why does Woody have Andy’s name on his boot, anyway?” Goofy asked. “Maybe there’s a connection?”

“Well, Woody said that the name on his foot was a reminder that Andy is the most important person to him.”

“Hmm, I don’t really see a connection when you put it like that.” Goofy looked to Donald, he seemed to be deep in thought as well. Goofy suddenly found that his foot itched. A sensation he could only recall from his the false memories of before he was a toy. “Say Donald, can you think of anything?”

Donald opened his eyes and looked at the two of them. “I was thinking about what Sora told us Woody said.” Goofy began scratching at his foot.

“What do you mean?” Sora asked.

“Well, if you’d asked me who was most important to me when we first woke up here, I could tell you the answer without even needing to think about it.” Donald said.

Sora and Goofy both nodded in agreement that they would have been able to do the same.

“But now that we’ve been here awhile, I’m not sure…” Donald continued.

“Yeah, they seemed so real when we woke up…” Goofy agreed, “It’s hard to believe they never existed.” Goofy was now rubbing his foot against the floor, rather roughly at that. “They might not be real, but I sure miss ‘em anyway.”

“Hey Goofy, be careful! Don’t wear out the plastic on your foot!” Donald shouted.

“Oh, sorry!” Goofy rubbed the back of his head embarrassedly. “It’s just that my foot started itchin’ real bad. I didn’t even know your foot could itch when it was made of plastic.”

The memory of walking towards the Television Room with Woody flashed through Sora’s mind. Sora’s foot itched back then too. Well, maybe itch might not be the right word. It felt kind of similar to…

“Hey, Goofy.” Sora spoke up from his silence. “Do you remember what it used to feel like when Donald’s magic would change our forms?”

“Well gee, it kinda felt like how my foot is feeling now…”

Sora attempted to swallow. But the lack of a real throat prevented the simple action. “I had a similar feeling when Woody first told me about Andy’s name on his boot.”

“One of your feet started to itch too?” Donald asked.

“Well… Maybe it didn’t itch. I might have been feeling a change.” Sora looked at the bottom of his detached foot and ran his hand over Kairi’s name. “Goofy, could you show me your foot?”

Goofy didn’t quite understand why Sora wanted to see the bottom of his foot, but raised it anyway. Sora stiffened upon seeing it. “What’s the matter, Sora?” Goofy was worried, Sora must have seen something he didn’t like.

“It’s- It’s a name…” Sora stammered, he didn’t know whether he should feel excited or nervous. He barely recognized the name. Goofy hadn’t talked about this person very often, only doing so during particularly boring Gummi flights.

“What name is it, Sora?”

“It says _Maximillian_.”

Goofy was quiet for a while, breaking the silence only to whisper, “Maxie…?”

Donald’s foot had itched earlier, too. But unlike Goofy, he hadn’t made a scene trying to scratch it. Donald hesitated as he lifted his foot, a little scared that it would show up blank unlike Sora and Goofy’s. But also scared that it would show _her_ name and destroy what he thought he understood his life was yet again.

“Donald? Does your foot also have a name on it?” Sora’s voice was quiet and low.

“Yeah,” Donald’s voice was quiet, but it seemed to echo through Sora’s ears. “It says _Daisy_.”

Sora’s mind reeled. “But… I don’t understand. They’re not real… Right?” Sora didn’t dare hope what he wanted to believe. If there was one thing he’d learned the hard way from Sid, it was not to hope for anything good to happen.

“They can’t have been,” Goofy said sadly, “If they and everything else were real shouldn’t you have been able to use the KeyBlade, or Donald use magic?”

“Maybe…” Donald’s voice was low and he was still half in thought as he tapped his head. “Maybe the reason we can’t use the KeyBlade or magic is because we’re toys.”

“What do you mean?” Sora asked.

“Well, if we were _turned_ into toys, then maybe the KeyBlade and my staff were turned into toys as well. You can’t channel magic through a pretend-staff and there isn’t anything special about a plastic toy that only looks like a KeyBlade.”

“Umm, is your magic really that powerful?” Sora looked a little skeptical. “Could you really turn the KeyBlade into a toy?” Donald had done some amazing things with his magic, but this would have to be beyond anything he’d ever done before.

“Well, it’s either that or we’ve always had the names on our feet and we’ve only noticed it now.” Donald looked at both Sora and Goofy. “Do either you remember seeing the names on our feet before?”

Goofy scratched his head, “Well no. But a lot’s been happening since we got here. I guess it’s possible that we’ve been too busy dealing with Sid.”

“But that wouldn’t explain why we could feel the change, right?” Sora asked. “We could feel the name appear, so they must be real.”

“I could think of another explanation.” Donald said. “Maybe we’ve always had the names on our feet and Toys _do_ just get itches like real people.” Donald hated bringing the idea up. Especially since he proposed that his magic was the reason for the names appearing.

It _was_ the simplest answer, Sora had to admit. “Maybe Woody and Buzz saw the bottom of our feet when Sid found us!” Sora voice was desperate as he tried to think of an explanation to counter what Donald had said. He looked across the room, trying to find the two toys that might be able to prove Donald wrong.

On cue, Woody and Buzz walked from around the corner of the dresser. Sora hope that they might be able to answer his question was short lived, as they were thrown aside when Sid’s door opened with an incredible ferociousness.

Sora had trouble seeing Sid enter the room from underneath the bed, but he could hear joy in his voice.

“It came! It finally came!” In his arms Sid carried a package. Sora presumed that whatever Sid was excited for, it was probably in that box. Sid dropped the package on his desk and began to unwrap it. “The Big One” Sid said in awe, as he pulled a rocket from the wrapping that certainly lived up to the name. “Where’d I put that busted spiky haired toy?” Noticing Sora wasn’t lying on his desk, Sid scanned the room.

Sid marched around the room for Sora. The sudden sound of a toy laser firing stopped Sid’s search. Looking down, Sid saw the Buzz Lightyear action figure underneath his shoe. Sid grinned as he lifted the Buzz Lightyear on to his desk. “I’ve always wanted to send an astronaut into orbit.”

Sora dragged himself to the edge of where the bed could hide him to get a better look. Morbid curiosity drove him to see what Sid was doing to Buzz. He could hear the sound of tape being pulled, cut, and stuck. But Sid’s frame got in the way of actually seeing what was happening.

Sora closed his eyes, not even able to stomach looking at Sid’s back. Sora pleaded to the worlds to give him some kind of sign that she was real, that the identity he’d remembered having was real. If the worlds heard him, then their only response was the sound of thunder as the cloudy night became stormy and violent. Sora felt his limbs stiffen once again as Sid moved around the room. Struggling to move once again, Sora’s thoughts turned to Kairi with one question on his mind.

_Kairi…? Are you real?_

***

If the vastness of space had a day and night cycle as Destiny Islands did, Kairi would have known she’d been focusing for the better part of a day. Hours had gone by with her trying to feel out for Sora’s heart. But the connection she had with him would not return. Opening her eyes she looked out at the ocean of stars, she could imagine on one of them Sora was safe and sound. Just waiting for her and Riku to show up and give him a ride back home.

But the Gummi Ship had been hovering in the same spot of space for hours now and she wasn’t sure how much longer Riku would give her before he would reluctantly turned the ship around and fly back to Yen-Sid’s tower.

“Please Sora, come back to me…” Kairi dropped her head and sighed. “If I had held on tighter, things would be different, I know. If you could just return to me, I’d never let you go, not even death would stop me from holding on to you.” Kairi whispered into the window. The whispered words hung in the air, halfway between a prayer and a promise.

“ _Kairi…?”_

Kairi lifted her head instantly. She looked around the room for the source of the sound.

“That voice… It sounded so familiar.” Kairi brought her hand to her chin as she tried to consider where it had come from.

_“Are you real?”_

There was that voice again. She knew she recognized the voice, but from where?

“Sora!” Kairi cried. “That was Sora’s voice!” She reached out for him with her heart, unlike earlier attempts she found something to latch onto, she had found his heart. Even better, she could feel the connection to him pulling her to wherever he was.

Kairi raced out of the room and towards the cockpit Riku was sitting in. He was slouched over in the pilot’s chair and seemed to be on the phone with King Mickey when Kairi burst into the room.

“Mickey, I don’t know what to do… It looks like we’ve really lost-” Riku turned around to see Kairi panting in the door frame. Jumping back in shock, Riku turned to look at his phone again. “Um Mickey I’ll call you back.”

“Riku!” Kairi said, at last catching her breath. “Let me drive, I can find Sora.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As usual, let me know what you think. Hopefully it turned out alright. I had a bit of trouble starting this one, but once I got going the writing process went pretty smoothly.  
> Also please let me know what you liked, if I should have been expanded on some areas, or even let me know if there were any grammatical errors or lines that were awkwardly written.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before we start, I'd like to take a minute to issue two shout outs. First I want to say thank you to DeadRoses who has been a consistent commenter since chapter 3. It was so nice to know someone was excited and coming back to what I've written and would let me know they were enjoying what I was writing. This story probably would have taken much longer to write without you. You definitely kept me motivated to keep writing when it got tough to find the right words.
> 
> Secondly, I want to thank TheLoneStar for reading through this last chapter, without their help I might have accidentally posted this chapter with a joke line I forgot to delete. So if you're disapointed that Riku will never say "Eat shit and die" in this story, You know who to blame. And if you're looking for some well written Majora's Mask angst, check out some of their works.  
> And of course I want to thank everybody who has commented and kudo'd and bookmarked this. I'm so glad you've enjoyed this story and I hope you find this ending to be satisfactory.
> 
> Oh, and honestly this chapter probably could have been split into two chapters. So I apologize if it's a little long. But I was determined to finish this story off. This chapter is about three times longer than most of my other chapters so I understand if you decide to read this in parts.

“Hold still already!”

“Donald, ya gotta try to keep quiet.”

“I know, but Sora keeps moving around.”

“Hey, I am not! Besides you’re the one who keeps missing the joint.” Sora gripped onto the thin carpeting under the bed as Donald tried to reinsert Sora’s leg. Sora was ready to shout at Donald again when Goofy clamped a hand over his mouth.

“Sora, I know you’re worried about Woody and Buzz. But you gotta be quiet too, otherwise Sid’ll wake up.”

“I know, I know…” Sora threw his hands up in defeat. He reminded himself that he wouldn’t have even be able to move, much less talk and argue with his friends, a couple nights ago. But every moment stuck hiding under this bed left Sora fretting over what Sid had done to Buzz.

“There, it’s in.” Donald said satisfactorily.

 Sora sat up and lifted his leg. It worked perfectly. As if it had never been removed. “You remember what I said back when you re-rotated my head? I don’t I’ll ever get use to popping limbs back in, either.”

“Gawrsh Sora, you’re gonna have to try and get used to it. You’ve still got one leg to go.”

Sora considered what he’d have to do in the meantime to avoid becoming dead weight. Sora rubbed the back of his head before turning to Donald. “Say, where’d we leave our weapons?” Sora asked.

Donald studied Sora a moment, trying to figure out what he had in mind. “You’re not planning on attacking Sid while he’s asleep, are you?”

“What!? No!” Sora said. “All I’d do is wake Sid up if tried to do that.” Sora stood up as best he could. Leaning on Goofy to keep himself from toppling over on his left side. “If I’m going to be moving around, then I’m also going to need a something to keep me standing up, right? My KeyBlade should do the trick.”

Donald found the spot under the bed where he left his staff, Goofy’s shield, and Sora’s KeyBlade. It was only a matter of time before Sid would eventually look under his bed, so it was a gamble leaving it all down here. But so far, it had paid off.

“Here,” Donald handed Goofy his shield and Sora his KeyBlade. “Woody said tomorrow morning is the day Andy’s leaving. So, like it or not, we gotta get out of here by then. Better to have all our stuff when we do get out of here.”

“Then we can’t just sit around.” Sora said. “If we have to make a break for it, then we need to find my other leg.” Sora stood up on his own. Using the KeyBlade Donald handed him as a makeshift crutch.

“Sora, you sure you can move around like that?” Goofy asked.

“I don’t really have much of a choice.” Sora did some practice steps. He moved in a circle around Goofy until he’d gotten the hang of walking with only one leg. “Say, guys. Do you still want to live in Andy’s Room with Woody and Buzz?”

“You’re thinking about the names we’ve discovered, huh?” Donald said. “I’m not sure. I think what I want to do is find where Sid found us, at least before we make any final decisions.”

“Yeah, there might be a clue about what happened to us there. But if we wait around much longer, we won’t have time to check it out before Andy leaves.” Goofy added.

“Then we’ll have to look around real quick outside Sid’s room and come back. Woody and Buzz won’t even know we’ve left.”

“I don’t know…” Goofy looked over at Sid’s desk. Woody and Buzz were still up there, but neither of them had come down since Sid strapped Buzz to that rocket. What if they came down while they were gone? “Just for a little while, right?”

“Of course. After all there’s no way my other leg is in here, one of you guys would have found it by now. So, we’ll just take a quick peek into the hallway outside. Maybe a look into the TV Room if we have time.”

“Gawrsh, what do you think, Donald?”

“I guess it can’t hurt if we’re careful.” Donald let out a shaky sigh.

“Exactly! Now come on! We can’t waste any more time.” Sora walked out from under the bed. Although his body stiffened as he walked further into the open Sora was surprised at how well he was able to move despite it. It gave him new hope that they’d all get out of this house as he squeezed through the small gap in Sid’s door.

The sound of rain filled the hallway outside of Sid’s room. The clouds the rain came from prevented much moonlight from entering the room, casting the room in darkness. Sora took a moment peering into the shadows, trying to see if there was anything hiding within them. “It’s all clear, guys.” Sora whispered back to Donald and Goofy.

“Gawrsh it sure is dark…”

“Neither of you happen to glow in the dark, do you?” Doanld asked, struggling to look around.

“We’ll just have to make do with the light we have.” Sora said, hobbling ahead of them.

It took the trio longer than normal to walk across the hall. Neither Donald nor Goofy wanted to walk ahead of Sora, fearing that if they turned around they would lose him in the darkness. So, they accepted the agonizingly slow pace they moved at with peace.

Sora on the other hand was getting discouraged by how long it took him to move across the room. Fear gripped his heart. “What if we don’t get out in time…” Sora didn’t even realize he had spoken aloud until Goofy acknowledged he’d said something.

“What’s that Sora?”

“Huh? Oh, I guess I was just wondering aloud what we’d do if we don’t make it out in time.”

“Are you worried that Andy will leave before we’ve made it out of here?” Goofy asked.

Sora shuffled for a bit trying to decide on what to say. “What scares me is having to choose.”

Donald looked up at him. “What do you mean by ‘having to choose’?” Donald asked.

Sora stopped moving and watched the rain streak down the window, refracting the little light that entered the room. “What if we don’t have enough time to find where Sid found us _and_ go with Andy.” He looked at his two friends. “What would you guys do?

Donald tapped his foot on the ground as he thought. “I don’t know… I guess if there’s a chance that I could be with Daisy, I’d have to take that chance.” Donald’s voice unsure as he spoke his answer. “But, I’m scared. There’s no real proof we ever really were real besides the names on our feet.”

Goofy agreed. “Yeah, but if there’s any chance I could see Maxie again then it’s a chance I’ve got to take.” Goofy was much more confident in his answer. Although he kept it to himself for the entirety of his time as a toy, he never truly stopped believing he was real.

Sora began moving again. “C’mon we have to keep moving, if we waste too much time talking about what if’s it might actually happen.” Sora continued taking heavy steps towards the TV Room. By the time they made it to the TV Room the rain weakened into a light sprinkle and the clouds began to part.

Sora looked around the room, but had trouble seeing anything. The room was dark enough during the daytime when Sora had last entered. And now at night, even with the weather getting better, it was nearly impossible to see anything.

“Sora, I think we should just head back to Woody and Buzz.” Goofy suggested.

Sora swallowed, the darkness in front of him was thick enough that Sora was almost certain if he reached out, he’d be able to grip it. “Maybe you’re right.” Sora turned back to Goofy, the little bit of light shining from the window Buzz tried to fly through lighting his friend’s figure.

The thought of leaving was put on pause when Sora heard a deep breath. A cloud passed by, allowing more light to filter into the room where Sora saw the dog sleeping in a bed in the corner of the room. Sora turned back to his friends; a finger placed against his lips in case they hadn’t seen the dog.

“Sora,” Donald whispered. “Your leg…” He pointed by the dog’s bed. Sora squinted to see what he was pointing towards. It was his leg!

“What has he done to it?” Sora asked as he noticed the many chewed dents and bite marks covering it.

Sora began walking towards it when Goofy grabbed his shoulder. Sora could tell what he wanted to say before he even spoke, his eyes were round with concern as he spoke. “It’s not safe. You might wake it up.”

“But it’s right there, Goofy.” Sora implored him to let him take the risk.

Goofy sighed and patted him on the shoulder. “You’re not fast enough, so I’ll go.” Goofy walked past Sora towards the sleeping dog.

“Goofy, what are you-” Goofy looked back at Sora with his finger to his lips this time. A reminder to Sora not to wake the dog; his good natured, understanding smile still there behind his finger.

Carefully, almost self-consciously, Goofy gauged his steps. Scared he might make enough noise to wake the dog as his plastic feet landed on the hardwood floor. He gripped the chewed leg that sat beside the dog’s bed and quietly began the trek back to Sora and Donald.

Almost immediately a loud ringing started came from Sid’s room. All three of them leapt up in surprise, it took them a moment to remember that Sid had set an alarm for the morning. Sora breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that Sid hadn’t somehow set an alarm system on the leg. Sora turned around to check on Goofy’s progress.

His breath stilled as he saw two glowing balls of light open above his friend. Goofy, noticing the look of fear on Sora and Donald’s faces, turned around to see the beast’s open eyes, the morning sun’s light reflecting from them.

A low growl rose from the dog as it moved towards the three toys. The three of them were frozen in fear, “G-Goofy, Run!” Sora managed to choke out. Sora wanted to wait for Goofy to catch up, but Donald grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the room.

Forgetting his physical condition, Sora tried to step forward with his missing foot. Barely catching himself with his KeyBlade, Donald yanked Sora forward as he hobbled behind. Turning his head to check on Goofy, Sora saw as his friend trailed a distance behind them.

Suddenly the dog skidded to a halt. Sora continued to look back in confusion, his attention gripped that he didn’t notice until it was too late that Donald had frozen in front of him and he had collided into the back of him.

Sid walked out of his room, holding on to the Buzz Lightyear toy he had waited all night to blow up. He saw Scud sitting in the middle of the hall.

Woody ran towards the door, hoping he’d be able to follow Sid down the stairs without him noticing. But before he crossed the door frame, Scud was already at the door. Woody tried to close the door before Scud could enter the room, but Scud managed to get its head between the door and the wall. Woody and Scud both pressed against the door trying to get it to move the way they wanted it to. Eventually Scud gave up and slinked back into the hallway. Just as Woody closed the door, he peeked and saw Sora, Donald, and Goofy stuck on the other side.

Woody’s thoughts were a mile a minute. How hadn’t he realized those three weren’t in Sid’s room until just now? Woody wracked his brain to think of something. A sound coming from behind him caught his attention, turning around he saw the many Franken-Toys from earlier who put Buzz back together.

“Guys please, I need your help!” Woody knew needed to come up with a plan and fast. It wouldn’t be much longer before Scud tore them apart, Sid blew up Buzz, and Andy left them all behind.

***

Scud spent a few minutes sniffing at the Sid’s door. Sora wished Sid had taken them away too. Slowly he felt control return to his body. Sora tried to move to Goofy without making a sound. But as he took a step towards his friend, the plastic knee joint squeaked as it rotated against itself. Scud turned towards the sound, eyeing Sora intensely.

A low growl came from the dog. Sora knew there was no chance he could escape this. Donald and Goofy seemed to finally snap out of the paralysis, but other than sitting up and pleading to an uncaring dog, there wasn’t much they could do either.

The sound of a doorbell rang, confusing the dog but it quickly ignored it. Scud took one step towards the three lying on the floor before the door to Sid’s room flew open. A small green blur drove around him before taking off down the stairs, a small whine coming from it as it moved. Scud’s attention had been taken up and it quickly forgot about Sora and the other’s on the floor as it chased after the toy that had just escaped.

Woody came out next, sitting atop a skateboard with a man fused to the front of it, a caravan of toys following behind him. “Are you three alright?” Woody’s voice was rushed. Sora figured that he was following a rushed schedule and was trying to get to Buzz as soon as possible.

Sora had trouble finding his voice, so much having happened at once left him feeling confused. It was Goofy who spoke first. “That was close, Woody. But we managed to find this!” He raised Sora’s leg for Woody to see.

Woody nodded his head at the sight of the limb, “Alright, can one of you reattach that quickly?” The metal spider-bodied toy with the child’s head moved towards Sora.

Sora recognized it. It was the first Franken-Toy he’d met when he entered Sid’s room. “Thank you…” Sora said as the toy began to reinsert the plastic leg.

***

 

“Mission Control, do we have permission to use the launch pad at this time?”

“Roger that, Ground control”

Sid played both sides of an imaginary conversation as he set the Buzz Lightyear down in the center of his backyard as he prepared for takeoff. He looked at the fuse of the rocket and realized he was missing something. “Hey Mom, where’s the matches?” Sid called. He looked around the yard before seeing them siting in the shed. “Oh wait! Nevermind!”

The man-skateboard, that Woody and the others rode in on, was launched into the bushes from the highspeed exit it made from the house. Woody had already filled the three toys in on the plan during the ride through the house. While in the bushes Woody checked for the Franken-Toys that worked as the distraction, earlier. The toys in question slid out from the storm drain and into hiding spots of their own. Woody shot them a thumbs-up before turning to Sora, Donald, and Goofy.

“Okay, good news, guys. We’ve taken care of Scud.”

“Wait, who’s Scud?” Sora asked.

“The big dog, he was about to chew you apart before we showed up.” Woody said. His voice low but he spoke in a rushed manner.

“Oh, that’s right. Sid called it that, didn’t he? I’ve just been referring to it as ‘that big dog’”

“Listen, we don’t have much time left. Scud is stuck on the front porch. So we don’t have to worry about him anymore.” A grin appeared on Sora’s face, but Woody interrupted him before he could say anything else. “I’m glad you’re happy, Sora. But just stay here for now. Don’t worry, you’ll know when to pop up.” Without another word, Woody leapt out from the bushes.

Buzz heard the leaves rustling as a familiar Cowboy doll rushed out from within the shrubbery. “Woody?” Buzz asked. “Woody, what are you do-”

“Shh” Woody hushed, “Don’t worry Buzz, everything’s under control” Woody promptly fell to the ground. Buzz was about to ask him what in the world he was doing when Sid exited the shed.

“Huh? How did this get here?” Sid stopped to pick up Woody as he walked along. “Oh well, maybe later we can have a cookout.” Sid tossed Woody on to a portable outdoor grill before moving towards Buzz.

Sora watched from within the bushes as Sid began his countdown for Buzz.

“Ten, nine, eight.”

Sora looked to Woody; the cowboy doll laid silently as Sid started his countdown.

“Seven, six, five.” Sid pulled out a single match and struck it against the matchbox.

Sora looked back and forth between Goofy and Donald. “How long, exactly, does Woody plan to wait?”

“Four, three, two.”

Sora was thankful that his plastic skin couldn’t sweat as his nerves strained to control himself.

“One.”

Sora was ready to jump out of the bushes and stop Sid himself as the lit match moved towards the rocket’s fuse. But just as Sid finished the countdown, Woody’s voice rang out. “Reach for the sky.” Woody drawled, enunciating the last word.

“Huh?” Sid moved the match away from Buzz, the flame reaching the tips of his fingers caused him to drop it on the ground as he walked towards Woody. “This thing’s busted.” Sid presumed. At least, he couldn’t come up with any other explanation.

“Who you callin’ busted, Buster?” Sid flipped the doll over trying to see what was wrong with it. “That’s right, I’m talking to you, Sid.”

Sid felt a chill run up his spine as he tightened his grip on the toy. Flipping it back around to look at the toy’s face, Sid checked to see if it moved or some other explanation would be made apparent.

“We don’t like being ripped apart or blown up!”

Toys from around the yard rose from the ground in various areas. It took a few moments for Sid to notice it happening. But by the time he did, he was surrounded!

Sora assumed this must have been the moment Woody was talking about. He leapt out of the bushes with Donald and Goofy right behind him. Sid looked away to see two toys he’d personally torn the legs out of. “But I didn’t put you back together…” Sid whispered.

Sora could feel the strain on every inch of his body as Sid looked at him. But to his surprise he was resisting the effects amazingly. He was able to power through his body’s desire to surrender to its default toy position. “Sid! You tore me and my friend apart! Don’t think for one moment, for the rest of your life, that we will ever forgive you!”

“If you treat anything else, _anything_ , so poorly _,_ we’ll be back to get you for what you’ve done to us!” Donald yelled.

A small round shield struck Sid in the center of the forehead with surprising force. He fell over as Goofy began speaking. “When you see your sister, Sid. Tell her, ‘Mrs. Mildred says thank you for the tea.’” Sora was surprised at how sinister Goofy made the otherwise nonsensical threat. But as Sid tried to compose himself, Sora threw his KeyBlade towards the same spot Goofy had aimed for.

“From now on you’d better take good care of your toys, Sid. Because if you don’t, we’ll find out. We toys, see _everything…”_ Woody’s head rotated 360 degrees before Woody finally allowed his facial features to move. “So play nice.”

Sid ran, tripping over himself just to get himself as far away from the sentient toys as he could. But upon entering the house he realized just how surrounded he and his family were by these toys. How many had he left to face the elements outside? How many had he torn apart and put back together, and then left in his room? “The toys… The toys are alive.” Sid mumbled. He looked up to see his sister Hannah coming down the stairs. He froze when he saw the doll in her hand.

Sora lifted himself up. His body ached and he could feel the stiffness in his limbs ebb away the further Sid got. Still even as Sid vanished inside his house a feeling of exhaustion remained in Sora’s body. Satisfied laughter drew Sora’s attention towards Woody as the cowboy doll began to dance

“We did it! Sora, Donald, Goofy, we actually did it!” Woody’s laughter was contagious as Sora began to laugh as well, mostly out of relief that Woody’s plan had actually succeeded, and they were able to save Buzz. But a dark part of Sora’s heart enjoyed seeing that look of panic and terror on Sid’s face. He wished the moment could have lasted longer. Just to see the boy, who tortured and treated him like trash, feel the same horror Sora had felt for the past four days.

Sora snapped himself out of his dark thoughts after he realized that Woody and the rest of the toys had stopped dancing. Paying attention to the real world again, Woody was now complimenting the toys on their performances. “Sora, you did great! I didn’t think you’d be able to move so well for being such a new toy.”

“This whole time being in Sid’s house has been a real sink or swim situation.” Sora said.

“Yeah, well we’re going to have to make sure you stay out of everyone’s sight. Moving like that is like working out a muscle, you’re probably not going to be able to move that much around people, even if they don’t see you, for a while.”

“Hey, who’s Mrs. Mildred?” Donald asked.

“Sid’s sister, Hannah, gave me and Buzz nicknames when she found us. Mine was Mrs. Mildred and we had a tea party! It was a heck of a coincidence, too. Since I have an aunt named Mildred too.” Goofy gave a characteristic laugh as he thought back to the moment. “I just wanted to let her know I appreciated it, since we probably won’t see her again.”

“That’s why you chose to say that to Sid?” Sora nearly laughed.

“Well, you and Donald seemed to have scared him well enough.”

Buzz, still standing on the launchpad that Sid had made for him, seemed to be the only one who heard the moving truck parked outside Andy’s house start to rev its engine. He called out to the others, all distracted in the congratulations and conversations, to let them know. “Woody, Sora! We’ve got to go now!”

“Right! C’mon guys we gotta go!” Woody said leading the way out through a small opening in Sid’s fence. Woody called back one more time to the Franken-Toys, thanking them and wishing them goodbye.

Sora skidded to a stop as the group exited Sid’s backyard. “There’s not enough time to do both.” He whispered, his voice breaking as he said it. Sora swallowed and looked to Donald and Goofy. They had both stopped with him. They knew what he was about to say. “Woody, where did Sid find the three of us?” Sora asked.

Woody turned around, “Why does it matter? We gotta go now or the truck and Andy are going to leave us behind.”

“Woody, I’m sorry” Sora hesitated. He could guess Woody and Buzz’s reactions, but the conversation he’d had with Donald and Goofy on the way to the TV Room cemented his resolve. If there was a possibility that Kairi and the others were real, they had to take it. “The three of us are going our own way. We have to see where we were found. I’m so sorry, we can’t come with you.”

“Sora…” Woody couldn’t hide the sound of betrayal in his voice and Sora winced when he heard it. “But I thought you were going to come back with us.” Woody turned to Donald and Goofy when Sora didn’t budge. “Do the both of you really want to do this as well?”

Donald and Goofy nodded sadly. “We’re sorry.” Donald said. “We should have said something sooner. But we have to find out for ourselves if there really isn’t anything we can learn by seeing it for ourselves.”

“Yeah and our ship might be someplace nearby if we really aren’t toys, too.” Goofy added.

Woody tried to think of some way to convince them not to go looking for a life he knew they wouldn’t find. Before he could think of a way to bring them back to reality another voice called out.

“Everybody say ‘Bye House!’” A woman’s voice yelled. Andy’s mom, Sora presumed.

“Bye House!” Another, younger, voice repeated. Sora noticed how Woody was distracted by the sound of the boy’s voice. Sora figured it must have been Andy’s voice.

“You should get going before it’s too late.” Sora said. Woody looked at him one last time before he walked forward and wrapped Sora in a hug.

“Take care of each other, partner.” The car Andy was in began to move, leaving the group of toys behind. Woody turned around and gave Buzz a nudge. “C’mon, Buzz. We can still catch up to the moving truck before it’s too late.” The two toys began walking away before Woody called out one more time. “Oh, and by the way, Sora. Sid found the three of you about three blocks down, after the next right that way.” Woody pointed without looking back.

Having the information that he needed, Sora couldn’t bear to watch the two toys leave. He felt a mix of guilt and emptiness as he ran away from Woody and Buzz. Woody had been expecting them to join him in Andy’s room. Remembering the sound of betrayal in Woody’s voice made Sora run faster in the direction Woody pointed towards. Sora knew Woody still didn’t believe they would find anything, and Sora feared again, that Woody was right.

***

The last time Riku checked on Kairi, he’d asked her to take a break. She didn’t even look up from the controls as she responded. “If I do that, I might lose my connection to Sora again.” That convinced Riku well enough to leave her alone. But even as he stayed quiet, he worried how much longer she could stay focused on flying the ship.

It wasn’t until a far-off star gradually grew larger and revealed itself to be a world that Riku spoke up again. “Is- is this it?” Riku hesitated, fearing that even after all those hours this wasn’t the world they were looking for

Large suburban neighbors dotted the landscape. It wasn’t as beautiful as Corona, but it appeared to be a perfectly peaceful place in its own right. Definitely not the kind of place Kairi imagined Sora getting stranded on. She wondered if maybe she’d gone to the wrong place. Maybe she was confused and followed the wrong trail. “This should be the place, but…”

“It doesn’t seem like a particularly dangerous world, does it?” Riku finished for her.

“But that was definitely Sora I felt.” Kairi said turning to Riku

Riku believed her. He didn’t think she was piloting in the wrong direction on purpose. But still, he wondered if Sora was really in so much trouble that Kairi would feel it worlds away on a world like this. He looked at the world again. It looked so uneventful. Even the Islands they called home would have violent storms. This world’s only danger, if Riku had to guess, was getting lost amongst identical houses and neighborhoods.

That was, until he saw a bright orange piece of Gummi material attached to a wing float by their ship. Riku swallowed. “Well, appearances can be deceiving.” Looking around he could spot the burnt out remains of an engine floating in space further away. “We’d better be careful. You’re certain you can feel him on this world?”

“Yeah, I haven’t stopped following that feeling since it returned to me.”

Unease crept into Riku as he noticed more junked Gummi Ship parts float around. “I’ll try to take us in for a landing.” Riku wanted to get on this world and leave as fast as possible. It was becoming more and more likely that Sora was attacked in flight and Riku could tell that Kairi was thinking the same.

Riku had just sat in his chair when Kairi spoke up again. “Riku!” Riku looked up from where he was adjusting the chair to see her pointing towards something hiding in the darkness. “What is that? Is it another ship?”

He barely saw it. A large unmoving black Gummi Ship was situated near a piece of space junk. Riku assumed that it was waiting to ambush anyone unfortunate enough to fly by without noticing it. Riku swallowed, realizing that if Kairi hadn’t pointed it out first he wouldn’t have noticed it. _Did Sora encounter this thing?_ Riku considered. He wondered if this thing was the reason Sora was missing now. Riku breathed a thank you towards Kairi as he flew towards it. “It looks like another Gummi Ship. But it’s just a space-faring Heartless!”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, Sora’s told me plenty of times of how he’s had to fight them off.” Riku flew around the back of the enemy ship. Flicking at some switches on the dash, Riku powered the cannons and fired.

The blast grazed the hull of the ship, alerting it to Riku and Kairi’s presence. It flew in an arc, avoiding the continued fire from Riku. It began charging a weapon of its own, a laser. Riku rolled the ship out of the way when he saw the enemy’s weapon had charged large enough. But the blast never arrived. Riku looked back at the enemy, a large ball of electrical energy was held in front of it, still growing bigger.

Riku was unused to dogfighting and the artificial gravity that kept him and Kairi rooted to the floor left them both feeling queasy after that sudden roll. Riku’s stomach was still doing a couple of rolls itself, Riku could only imagine how Kairi felt. He turned to look at her, her face green from the sudden acrobatics looked like Christmas with her red hair draping it.

“Riku, look out!” Kairi called, pointing out the window. Riku looked back to see the extraordinarily large laser being fired. Riku pulled at the controls again, this time avoiding an actual attack. The laser engulfed multiple asteroids and left little more than dust where they once floated.

Narrowly avoiding the projectile, Riku turned his attention back to the Gummi determined to finish it off this time. Riku flicked at more dials and switches, beginning a sequence to fire his own laser.

The large Gummi in front of him had seen better days, Riku almost felt sorry for it as it limped through space. Almost.

Riku couldn’t risk letting it charge another shot. But most of all, Riku was certain this _thing_ was responsible for his friend’s disappearance.

A tone dinged, letting Riku know that his own laser was fully charged. Riku flicked another swith and fired. The Gummi Ship shook as the power that was unleashed rocketed towards their enemy.

Kairi and Riku breathed a sigh of relief as the Gummi that had nearly destroyed them fell apart. Riku sat back in his seat, trying to relax. “I think space combat might be more Sora’s thing than mine.” Riku let out a breath that he hadn’t realized he’d been holding in. He had no idea how Sora could fly to so many different worlds with heartless piloting Gummis like that.

Kairi still had a shade of Christmas to face. She too had been taking deep breaths once the Gummi went down. “That- that was really close…” She said between breaths. “Sora has to be on that world, right? I mean that looked like a Gummi’s wing out there and if we hadn’t spotted it first we easily would have been shot down easily. You saw the size of that laser blast.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. I was thinking the same thing.” Riku turned to Kairi. “Prepare yourself, okay? I’ll make preparations to land. We’ll begin the search for Sora as soon as we touch down.

***

Kairi and Riku walked down identical looking streets. Hoping they’d come across something that would lead them to Sora.

They kept their eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary. Something other worldly or alien. But Kairi wondered what exactly did ‘unusual’ look like when she knew they were the aliens. For all she knew, large amounts of concrete and paved roads were some secret plan Xehanort had cooked up on this world. She doubted it, but without a working knowledge of this world’s history she couldn’t actually refute that idea.

The only thing they saw that struck them as odd was a large section of cracked concrete outside of one house. A small part of Kairi hoped that it was some sort of clue to Sora, but it wasn’t even close to the size of the Gummi Ship that she and Riku rode in. If she had to guess, the round crater was probably left by a bowling ball. Kairi looked at the cracks in the ground once more before shaking her head.

She reminded herself that she had to be strong. If Sora really was stuck on this world then he would probably need a friendly face right about now. She closed her eyes and imagined herself building up all her negative feelings as she took a deep breath and sent them flying away as she breathed out. She opened her eyes, smiling as she set them on a man filling mailboxes with letters further away. “Come on, Riku! We’re not going to find him if we keep walking around so slowly!”

“Huh?” Kairi’s sudden energy catching him off-guard. “Do you have any ideas or see anything that could help us find him?”

“We should start by asking if anyone’s seen something fall from the sky recently. The simplest solution is usually the correct one.” Kairi said as she started walking towards a man further down the street. Turning her head to look back at Riku she shouted to him. “We’ll just tell people we’re amateur astrologers!”

“You mean Astronomers!” Riku shouted back.

“Whatever!”

Riku chuckled to himself as he ran to catch up with Kairi. He didn’t know how she managed to stay so positive all the time. Maybe it was a symptom of being a Princess of Heart. Or maybe he was overly-pessimistic after letting the Darkness into his heart. Regardless of the answer, Kairi’s enthusiasm brought some light back into his own heart. He made a mental note to thank her for that later.

“Excuse me, sir.” Kairi said as she approached the man.

“Hello dear, hope you’re having a good morning.” The sun glistened off his teeth as he smiled at her.

“It’s not too bad so far.” She returned a small smile as she continued. “I hope it’s not too odd to ask if you’ve seen anything fall from the sky lately.”

Riku rolled his eyes. “Very smooth, Kairi.” He said under his breath.

“The sky?” The man raised an eyebrow at the strange girl. “No… Should I be worried about something falling on my head? I’ve run into many a prankster who’s thought the mail deliverer was most deserving of a practical joke.”

“Oh, no! Not at all! At least I don’t think so…” Kairi said, waving her hands trying to shake off any implications she might have created. “It’s just, my friend and I are trying to become astrologers, you see.”

“Astrologers, eh?” He pulled out a newspaper from one of the mailboxes he’d just delivered to. “What’s your sign? I’ll read what’s predicted for you.”

“Oh, that’s nice of you to do.” _Shoot, what are the names of astrological signs again?_ Kairi wracked her brain trying to think of what to say next. “Umm, I think I’m a Sagi- uhh, Sagittaratops? No that’s not right. Wasn’t that a dinosaur or something? Maybe I’m a, uh, vir- a vertigo?”

Riku was tempted to just keep watching Kairi. He was curious what else she’d come up with. But he knew she’d get mad at him if he left her floundering alone.

“She got the word wrong.” Riku said putting a hand on her shoulder. “We want to be astronomers, not astrologers. She’s just too embarrassed to admit it.”

“What?! No! I’m just mixing up my signs. I know I’m actually a vergil, or wait, that’s not it. Vermillion?”

“Oh, I see. Space debris would probably be on a completely different page.” The man said, apparently unfazed by the odd people he was talking to as he flipped through the paper. “Well, I don’t see any stories about something falling from the sky last night.”

“Oh, it would have fallen about week ago. Five days to be precise.” Kairi had found her voice again now that the subject had been changed. “Does that ring any bells?”

“Hmm, I don’t recall seeing or reading anything about that…” The man straightened his graying mustache as he considered what they had said. “Did you see a shooting star or something? Often times, that’s just bits of space junk burning up in the atmosphere, so I doubt it leave anything behind.”

Kairi went white at the man’s suggestion. “Oh, well let’s hope it didn’t happen like that.” Kairi tried to act casual, but her voice stuttered as she spoke. She tried to think of something more to say when the distant sound of metal scraping against metal carried over the. “What was that?!” She scanned the area for where it came from. It must have happened a couple blocks down, because she couldn’t see any damage from where she was standing.

“Hmm? What was what?” The man asked, his hearing apparently not being good enough to pick up the noise Kairi heard.

“I heard it too.” Riku said. “We should go investigate.”

Kairi nodded in agreement. “Goodbye and thank you for your help, sir.” She said to the man before taking off running with Riku.

Kairi and Riku ran towards the noise. The closer they got to where they believed the noise had originated from, the more traffic the crowd of cars on the road seemed to grow.

“What happened over here?” Kairi asked as the two of them ran ahead of the stopped cars.

“If I had to guess, it looks like there was some sort of accident.” Riku replied.

“Do you think Sora might have something to do with it?” Kairi imagined that if something was going wrong on this world, Sora would likely be in the thick of it.

“Maybe,” Riku panted as continued to run. “But even if he isn’t, someone might have gotten hurt.”

As they continued ahead, they found the source of the blocked traffic. A four-way intersection had been completely blocked by multiple cars. As the two of them got closer to the scene they saw a creature was trapped. Surrounded by the cars, a dog was barking at the machines boxing it in.

Seeing the fear on the creature’s face, Kairi leaped over one of the cars and scooped up the dog before leaping back out.

“Well, no Sora.” Riku said looking at the scene. “But it looks like you found a pet.”

“We should probably try to get it home.” Kairi said.

“Do we have time? We still need to find Sora, after all.”

“I know that, but we’re just going in circles right now. You know Sora, he’s always telling us about how he got involved with the worlds he visits. Maybe we should do the same. At least if we take this poor dog home we can ask its owners if they’ve seen Sora or anything.”

Riku gave up on arguing. She had a point, and if they could get this done quickly then even if the dog’s owners didn’t know anything, they could be back to looking for Sora again. “Does it have a tag?” Riku asked.

Kairi put the dog back on the ground. “Yeah, hold on I’ll see if its owners live nearby…” Kairi crouched down to look at the tag adoring the Dog’s neck. “Hmm, it says its name is Scud. Owner’s name is Sid Phillips, oh! Here’s the address.” Kairi read it off to Riku, before realizing she didn’t actually know the names of any of the streets or how far the house this dog came from was.

“I don’t think we need to worry about how far away the dog’s house is.” Riku chuckled as he pointed towards one of the street signs by the intersection. “It looks like we’re already on the right street”

“Oh, that’s good.” Kairi said before crouching down to Scud’s eye level. “Don’t worry boy, we’ll get you home soon.”

Scud was still shaken by the accident it had caused. Its looked around for the two toys that had escaped its home. Scud kept turning around until it was facing the girl who had rescued it. The girl smiled at it. Scud bared its teeth at her trying to get the strangers to keep their distance. But there was something familiar about the way they smelled. It stopped baring its teeth and wagged its tail.

“Aww, see he’s friendly.” Kairi said getting closer to pet it.

Scud allowed the stranger to rub her hand on its head as he got closer to her and breathed in her scent.

“Come on, Riku. I bet he’d like you too.” Kairi said, her worries melting away as she rubbed the dog.

Scud turned as it heard the other stranger move towards it. It laid down and breathed in this boy’s scent as well. Scud opened its eyes wide. It knew why they smelled familiar. They smelled like that one toy. Scud sniffed the air. It could feel the toy’s presence. Scud could find it. It hadn’t gotten very far.

“Come on now, Scud. Let’s get you back home.” Kairi hopped to her feet. The dog didn’t seem to be listening to her. “Here boy, come on!” Kairi’s smile faltered as the dog continued to ignore her. She took a step towards. “Scud, let’s go to your home, okay?”

Scud turned around and ran pass the two strangers that had found it.

“Scud! Come back!” The female stranger called. Scud ignored them as it followed the scent.

***

Being a toy had many disadvantages, but one advantage Sora found was that he never seemed to run out of breath as he ran. Of course, another disadvantage was that his size was so small that he barely made any progress as he ran. It took him far longer than he hoped to make it to the part of the neighborhood that Woody said Sid found the three of them at.

A large house stood on the corner of the street, in front of it were signs that something had crashed near it. The cement was cracked and skid marks littered a trail towards some bushes.

“Hey Barbara, what happened outside your house? You drop a bowling ball out here?” A man dressed in a Mailman’s Uniform asked a woman watering a potted plant on her doorstep. Sora could feel the man’s presence far before he heard or saw him. His body screamed in protest as he tried to hide. Sora had to force his limbs to slowly trudge himself into the bushes of a neighboring house, bushes seemed to not be. Donald and Goofy’s movements were nearly as paralyzed as Sora’s, but they too managed to pull themselves into hiding before anyone else noticed the three walking toys.

“I have no idea.” The woman looked up. Her face soured as she looked at the destruction in front of her house. “One night Dave was putting out the trash, didn’t say a word. The next day he comes in shouting that one of the neighbor’s boys must have somehow smashed the sidewalk in the middle of the night.”

“So you don’t know what caused this, huh?” The mailman said, riffling through the bag slung on his shoulder.”

“No, but we do know that we’ll have to pay to fix it.”

“Sorry to hear that, Bar. I’ve got a letter for you; hopefully it’s got some happier news for you.”

The woman went inside with her letter. Sora, waiting for the mailman to walk out of view, jumped out of the bushes and ran to the crater of cracked concrete. Sora could see why the man thought a bowling ball had caused the damage. The area of damaged concrete wasn’t much, about the size of bowling ball, if Sora estimated the size correctly, an ability that had become much harder to do since awakening as a toy. It certainly wasn’t large enough to have been the crater where the Gummi Ship landed.

“Unless, of course, the Gummi Ship shrunk when we crashed here.” Goofy said.

“To be honest, I was kinda hoping that the ship would be the same size as always.” Sora said, as he turned to look at Goofy. “The ship itself has never been affected by Donald’s magic before. So if it’s the same size as usual, then we’d know for sure that we aren’t really toys.”

“Well, if you’re hoping it’s unchanged from the way we remember it, you might be disappointed.” Donald lifted a broken piece of orange material off the ground. Despite Donald’s warning Sora hoped that it might be Gummi material before Donald handed him the piece.

“It’s just plastic…” Sora failed to hide the disappointment from his voice. He looked at the skid marks on the ground and followed them towards the bushes. Somehow, whatever caused this destruction left the bushes mostly unharmed. Following into the bushes deeper, Sora found the object he’d been looking for. The Gummi Ship lay in a patch of mud, its hull scared from smacking into the cement and many pieces of it were missing. Noticeably one of its wings was missing.

“This must be it!” Sora rested his head in his hands. Emotionally and mentally exhausted, Sora couldn’t decide if he finally had proof or not. Did he just want to believe that this was enough to prove his humanity? There were too many possible moments that might prove they weren’t toys, but not a single concrete piece of evidence that couldn’t be easily explained away by a simple explanation.

“Oh, you’ve always had that name on your foot.” Woody would’ve explained.

Or Buzz might say “C’mon Sora, you know that the simple answer is just that some kid bought you, Donald, and Goofy as a set and that set included your ship. That kid must have thrown it, causing the damage to the ship and the street just like the two adults figured out. They clearly don’t understand the value of money if they’re going to waste like that.” After spending those couple of days with Sid, Sora couldn’t deny the possibility.

Goofy put a hand on Sora’s shoulder. “Don’t be afraid, Sora.” Goofy grinned at him. “We’ll be okay, no matter what happens.”

“But I’m scared, Goofy. What if we made a mistake?” Sora stared past the bush’s leaves towards at the empty road, his eyes were unfocused as he let his vision get fuzzy. “Woody offered us a place to live, and I threw it away to find something that doesn’t exist.”

“Sora you can’t give up yet. We just found the Gummi Ship, and it’s missing a wing just like we remembered from before we awoke in Sid’s bag.”

“Can you honestly tell me there’s no other explanation for what happened to the wing?” Sora pointed towards a storm drain near the cracked cement. “If we actually lost the wing when it hit the ground, then our memory would be wrong. It could easily have fallen down there. And after last night’s storm, it would have been flushed away to someplace we’ll never find it.

“Sora, do you not believe you’re real?” Goofy gently moved Sora’s head, forcing him to look him in the eyes.

“I just don’t want to be wrong. Not anymore.” Sora jerked his head, removing it from Goofy’s gentle hold. “If I’m a toy, then let me be a toy. If I’m real then please, let me be real.”

“Maybe there is another explanation for the Gummi Ship, maybe we’ve been toys all along. But I don’t believe it!” Goofy gripped Sora’s shoulders. “Maybe we could explain away one or two coincidences. But there’ve been way too many things that suggest that we aren’t toys. I’m not saying its certain that we’re people, but I believe in us and our friends. Don’t you?”

Sora stayed silent as he looked at Kairi’s name written on his foot.

Donald walked towards the other two. He studied Sora, before deciding to say what was on his mind. “Guys, we should go. We’re not getting much from just looking this Gummi Ship.”

The trio moved from the bushes and followed down the street. Carefully they checked for any sign of people being outside. Confident that the street was deserted they followed down the road at a slow pace trying think of what to do next. But they figured that moving in any direction was better than sitting around forever.

If there was anything on this street, any kind of animal or creature, they weren’t making a noise. Looking around, Sora couldn’t see anything either. Not a squirrel in a tree, a gopher appearing from its hole, nor even a bird sitting on the telephone pole. There must have been something living on this street besides the people in their houses. But everything was quiet. As if every creature on the street had shut up and was hiding from something.

Except Sora did hear one sound.

A panting coming from far away behind them. Sora stopped as the sound got closer. He turned around. Something low to the ground was running towards them. It wasn’t a person, none of them had trouble moving. Sora squinted, trying to see what it was. It was already on top of Sora before he could properly register what it was. Sora barely had time to react before Scud bit into his leg.

It took Sora a minute to react when he didn’t feel the pain he was expecting. “Get off me!” Sora yelled, smacking the dog wherever he could with his KeyBlade. The dog bit harder and lifted Sora into the air as he continued trying to fight it off. The sound of plastic cracking stopped Sora’s heart. Overcome with fear, Sora screamed. Horrified of what he’d see if the dog ever opened its mouth. Sora flailed his KeyBlade, trying to free himself before more damage could be done.

Goofy’s round shield flew past Sora’s face, nailing the dog in the eye. The dog whined and dropped Sora, who fell to the ground with a thud. Donald was by Sora’s side moments later. Sora felt a pit in his stomach grow when he looked upon his right leg. A hole sat where the dog’s tooth had pressed into Sora’s shin. He felt dizzy as he looked into the empty cavity his leg once hid.

The image of the first toy Sora met from Sid’s room flashed in his mind. The sight of peering through its missing eye into the back of its head, and all the little bits of hair poking back from the outside going in lingered in the back of his mind. Sora would have preferred to see blood or bone. At least then he’d know there was a limit to how far Donald’s magic had changed him, that perhaps some part of him was still human.

“Sora, can you stand?” Donald shook him, breaking Sora out of his spiraling thoughts.

“I’m not sure.” Sora put some weight on his leg, surprised to see that despite the damage he felt no pain, nor did he have any less strength in his legs. “I guess so?” Sora said as he stood up.

“Guys, I could use some help over here!” Goofy called to them, struggling to evade the dog’s swiping paws.

“Goofy, hang on!” Donald called as he ran forward to help in the fight. Without his ability to use magic, Donald resorted to clubbing at the dog’s paws with his staff. Sora gripped his KeyBlade and steeled himself for the fight.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy landed blow upon blow to the giant dog. But in their small forms they just didn’t have the weight behind their blows to do any damage. Occasionally Sora would dodge a swipe and the wind caused by the narrowly avoided swing would whistle through the hole in Sora’s shin.

This wasn’t going to end well. The dog showed no sign of tiring and Sora knew eventually one of them was going to mess up and become this dog next chew toy.

“There you are Scud!” A girl’s voice traveled down the street. Sora could hear someone else marching in tow with her.

 Donald and Goofy fell over stiff as a board. Sora could feel the paralyzing effect take hold over his body as well before he too fell to the ground. Scud wasted no time bitting into Sora. It attempted to run off with at least one of its prizes.

“Scud, we told you to sit!” The girl’s voice was angry as she grabbed hold of the dog’s collar. Her breathing was heavy now that she could finally stop running. “Come on, leave those toys alone. We’re taking you home.” The dog tried to stay rooted to the ground, but with a mighty heave she pulled Scud back. Its front paws lifted into the air, causing it to drop Sora with a yelp. “Riku, can you hold on to him until we get Scud back home?” It wasn’t until now that Sora recognized the girl’s voice.

 _That voice…_ Unable to vocalize his thoughts, Sora was only able to think to himself. _It couldn’t be her… And wait, did she say ‘Riku’?_ Sora had been left face down on the ground so he couldn’t see if they really were the people he hoped they were. But he did notice the shadow of the girl growing larger as she leaned down to pick him up.

“Kairi don’t touch that toy.” Riku said disgusted. “Look at it. it looks like the dog’s been chewing on it.”

“But maybe it belongs to Scud. Maybe the reason why it ran off when we found him was because he was looking for his toy.” Sora was convinced. They really were his friends. Had they been looking for him? He couldn’t believe it, but here they were, and they’d found him. “We should take it with us and return it back to Scud’s house.”

 _No no no! Kairi, please don’t do that! If Princesses of Heart can read minds, then right now would be a really great time to reveal it!_ Sora screamed internally.

“I don’t think so.” Riku said turning around. Kairi followed suit as they began to walk away. “That toy looks like it would be a choking hazard to a dog like Scud. Besides owner of that toy is probably looking for it, anyway. Better if we leave it where they left it.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Kairi agreed. She stood and turned, not even looking back at the toy on the ground.

Sora tried to move. It was all he could do now. He could hear them walking further and further away, and Sora couldn’t do anything to stop them or make them come back. He tried to scream, to yell, anything to let them know that he was right here. But no noise would come out. _Please guys, come back._

Sora knew that if he didn’t do something, they would keep on walking away. Not even realizing the one they were looking for was so close by. Sora dug deep, gathering all his leftover strength and willpower to lift himself off the ground. He took a heavy step forward but found he couldn’t force his body to move anymore. But he could see them walking away now. Sora’s breathing slowed as his chest set back into unmoving plastic, but he felt the psychological need to kick in. The panic set in as his breathing was denied. Sora could only think of one thing to do as they got further away.

“Riku! Kairi!” Sora felt his body stiffen harder in response to his outburst, even the slightest movement being denied to him. But he could feel the paralysis hadn’t climbed up the entirety of his body yet. “Please! don’t go!” At this his mouth froze in a big goofy grin, preventing him from speaking anymore. _Maybe they’ll investigate why a toy they’d found lying on the ground is suddenly standing up behind them_. Sora hoped. Sora’s hopes were swiftly dashed as the unnatural pose left his body unbalanced and toppled over to the ground.

Kairi stopped. She could have sworn she’d heard something. It was so small and quiet that she thought she might have imagined it. “Riku, did you hear something?” She turned around to see where it might have come from, only to see the few discarded toys on the street. Although she could have sworn that one of them was lying face down earlier. Curious, Kairi considered walking towards it and examining it.

“Kairi, can we get a move on?” Riku kept both hands on the dog’s collar. The height difference between him and the dog meant Riku forced to squat rather awkwardly next to Scud. “Come on, let’s go. It’s getting kind of uncomfortable standing around like this. And besides, the sooner we get Scud back home, the sooner we can start looking for Sora again.”

Kairi turned back around to face Riku. Her attention caught by his mentioning of Sora. “Yeah, you’re right. You still remember the way to Scud’s house?”

The two of them began walking away again. Sora tried to move but ultimately was forced to accept that his body wouldn’t budge. That his friends would leave and not even realize that he was so close. He wanted to cry, but even if he could move, it’s not like he had tear ducts anyway. As he lay on the sidewalk, Sora cursed the plastic shell he was entombed in. Forcing him to watch the world outside move without his involvement.

An awful feeling welled up inside Sora with no way to let it out as he stared at the sky. He wished that he had gone with Woody and Buzz. Sure, maybe he would still think he was a toy. But at least he’d have somewhere that he belonged. Sora could almost see them now. Flying through the sky on the lit rocket Sid had strapped Buzz to earlier.

Sora tried to blink to wipe the image from his vision. But his eyelids wouldn’t move. It took him a few moments to realize that he wasn’t imagining them either. What were they doing in the sky? Before Sora could question what was going on, he saw the rocket explode. Somehow escaping the explosion, Buzz flew back down to the ground with Woody in his arms. Sora was captivated. He wanted to see what happened to his friends, but he couldn’t get up or move his neck. And besides, they would soon be obscured by the houses in the neighborhood as they got lower to the ground.

Kairi and Riku turned around after the sudden explosion. “What was that?” Kairi asked. “Are there heartless attacking?”

Riku searched the area for where the sound had come from. Eventually looking towards the sky and seeing the remains of a colorful fireworks explosive. “I think it’s alright, somebody must have lit a rocket.” Riku pointed towards the colorful cloud in the sky.

“Oh, thank goodness…” Kairi sighed. She didn’t want to deal with anymore problems. Sora was turning out to be harder to find than she feared. She looked down from the sky, taking a moment to glance at the toy lying in the street. It looked familiar, now that she had a second look at it.

Riku let loose a groan. “Scud’s gone. He must have been freaked out by the explosion just like us and ran off when we weren’t looking.”

“Remind me never to hire you as a dog walker.” Kairi joked absentmindedly. She got closer to the toy on the ground and poked it. She half expected it to grab hold of her finger as she brought near it.

“We should go find him before he gets away again.”

Riku, wait.” There was something not right about this toy. Kairi picked up the toy and shook it gently, trying to remove the dog slobber from it. “Who does this remind you of?” She held it up for him to see.

Kairi, it’s just a toy. We don’t have time to look at every discarded plaything.” Riku was about ready to leave but took a second glance at the toy in her hand. “Hang on.”

“It’s Sora, right? It looks just like him.” Kairi bounced on her toes as she showed him off. Riku had to admit the resemblance was uncanny.

“So, what do you think the odds are that it’s just another toy that happens to look like Sora?” Riku looked at the plastic figure again. It had Sora’s features and his hair. It felt like it was looking right at Riku. In fact, Riku could have sworn its eyes moved slightly.

Sora knew he had to do something. He dug deep and forced a low quiet voice. “Please… Don’t forget them…”

Kairi screamed and dropped the toy. Riku took a couple steps back. The toy’s arm moved to point towards the lawn they stood beside.  They followed the direction it pointed to and found two more toys hidden among the blades of grass.

“Donald! Goofy!” Riku could recognize those two anywhere. In their hands were their weapons. Looking closer a small plastic KeyBlade lay next to them. Riku didn’t believe in coincidences this big. “How did this happen?” He turned back to the Sora toy but it just stared at him. Did he not want to talk? Or was he unable?

“We should get them back to the Gummi Ship.” Kairi said. “Maybe the King or Yen Sid will know what to do.”

Riku searched the street for Scud. He wasn’t going to leave Sora in this state for any longer than he had too. He felt bad just leaving the dog by itself, but he hoped that Scud would find its own way home. “Yeah you’re right. Let’s go.”

***

Kairi brought the toys of her friends onboard the Gummi Ship. Riku started the engines and began take off. As they moved higher into the sky something changed with the three toys. Kairi held Sora so she noticed him changing first. He grew larger the higher they flew, the larger he got. His hair separated from one large block of plastic into multiple strands of hair and his skin grew softer.

Then a pain traveled through his leg as magic sizzled over his body. Kairi let him down on the floor as he came closer and closer to his regular height.

“Sora, what’s going on?!” Kairi cried. She was happy to see him coming back to normal. But he appeared to be in pain. “Talk to me!”

Sora couldn’t speak. Dark bags formed under his eyes as he sunk to the floor. Nearly a week’s worth of sleep deprivation crashed into him at once.

“It’s the magic.” Donald said. “It’s wearing off now that we’re not on that world anymore.” His worlds came out slow as his eyelids struggled to stay up. Goofy was already asleep.

Kairi ran to the mage, crying out for him to help her. But by the time she reached him he was unresponsive. “Please wake up!” She shouted, hoping it would awaken him. Kairi turned back to Sora.

The pain in Sora leg dulled as sleep gripped him tighter. But there he could still feel a cold spot on his shin. Sora’s head drooped as he found it harder to keep his head up. But he looked at the red wet spot on his leg. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that this was bad. But his need for sleep overpowered his sense of pain and danger. Like a faraway echo Sora could hear Kairi call out for Riku.

***

Sora could barely lift his eyelids. He forced himself to keep them half open as he took in his surroundings. He tried to remember where he was. Exhaustion held on to Sora’s mind and after a few minutes he was already ready to give up and fall over asleep again. He’d just gotten comfortable again when he realized he hadn’t seen Donald and Goofy. The tiredness fled from his body as he sat up and looked around the room for his friends. Memories of the past few days’ events flooded back to him. Being a toy, stuck in Sid’s room, Sid’s sick idea of what play with a toy was, the dog, being torn apart.

Meeting Woody and Buzz was the only bright spot he could think of. But his decision to part ways with them haunted Sora. After Woody’s offer to take him to Andy’s room Sora couldn’t help but feel like he betrayed him by not going with him.

A snore alerted Sora of the presence of someone else in the room. He turned around, not realizing he hadn’t checked the other side of the room yet. There they were.

Donald and Goofy were fast asleep in separate cots. They had clearly seen better days. their clothing was disheveled, and their features were hard. Sora got up to check on them but crumpled to the floor as soon as he put weight on his right leg.

A burning pain spread through his shin; Sora stifled a scream with his hand. Turning over, Sora checked on his leg. It was tightly wrapped in bandages but was slowly staining red. Sora tried to ignore at as he dragged himself towards his two sleeping friends. They were covered in dirt and scratches, but they were made of flesh again, just like him.

“Where am I?” Sora whispered. The pain in his leg kept him from falling back asleep. Sora tried to remember how he got here. Nothing came to him, he couldn’t remember boarding this ship at all, much less when he became flesh again.

“Wait, where’s Riku and Kairi?” Sora looked out the door, a hallway lead further into wherever this place was. Sora balanced his weight between the wall and his left leg. The walls hummed the same way his Gummi Ship did when traveling at high speeds.

“I didn’t dream them up, did I?” Sora whispered. How much of what happened on that world was a dream? “Was all of it? Did Woody and Buzz exist? The area where my leg is bandaged matches where Scud had split my leg... So that had to be real, right?”

“Do you think they’ll be alright?” Kairi asked.

Riku was flying the Gummi Ship back towards Yen Sid’s tower. “I don’t know” Riku admitted. “You saw him, he was pretty badly shaken.”

“I almost left him behind” Kairi’s voice was quiet as she remembered the tiny voice screaming her name. “He was so small, and when we brought him on board… His- his leg was…” Kairi couldn’t finish the sentence. She’d wrapped his leg in bandages shortly after he fell unconscious. But Sora’s leg was already split wide open before they’d even gotten him on board. Beneath all the red that had emerged from his wound, something porcelain white gleamed from underneath. She couldn’t bear to recall anymore from that moment.

“Kairi, please. We can ask him about what happened after we he wakes up”

“Yeah, but we should cast cure or something on him in the meantime, right? It should be okay now, right?”

“I’m a little worried about doing that while Donald’s still asleep. I’m scared the magic that turned him into that small toy might still be in his system somewhere, what if leg turns back into plastic?”

Kairi sunk in her seat, unable to say anything more after the events of the day. The silence didn’t last for long when a scared voice cracked from the door behind them.

“Guys?”

Kairi and Riku turned to face the familiar voice. Sora stood in the door frame. His eyes were wide with disbelief. his appearance was disheveled, and he was barely keeping himself upright, leaning on the wall just to keep standing.

“Sora! You should be in bed!” Kairi rushed over to him, embracing him in a hug.

Sora wasn’t sure if he could really believe what he saw as she rushed to him. But as she pulled him into her, as he felt her embrace, he couldn’t control the tears that he’d been forced to hold back the past few days. Her touch was proof enough that she really existed.

“You’re- You’re real…” His voice cracked as he said it. “I thought… Or I didn’t know if you…” Sora’s mind was a rush of thoughts he couldn’t decipher. “I thought you were a lie!” He cried harder as he rested his head against the crook between her neck and shoulder, his body shuddering with each gasp he took.

“Sora it’s okay, it’s okay.” Kairi soothed, rubbing his back and supporting his weight off his bad leg. She worried she was doing something wrong as he started to cry harder.

“I really did believe that you weren’t real. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” Sora gripped her tighter. “I was just an object. He didn’t care! He tore off my legs and wanted to blow me up with a rocket!” Sora didn’t know how to explain the past few days to her. He just wanted someone to know what happened.

“You’re safe now, Sora.” Kairi tried to reassure him again. What he said worried her, but she knew he needed to let it all out, rather than forcing him to answer question that could upset him further.

Eventually after he’d cried himself out, the exhaustion of staying awake for four days straight caught up to him again. But the comfort and safety he found in Kairi’s arms reassured him as he drifted back to sleep. “I’ll get him back to his bed.” Kairi said, turning to Riku.

“Sure, and maybe you should stay near him. In case he wakes up again.” Kairi nodded in agreement as she carried Sora over her shoulder.

She looked him over, as she tucked him back into bed. She’d never seen him look this defeated before. He’d always talk about how wonderful exploring the worlds was, but was it always this dangerous?

If this one world could be so dangerous without Xehanort’s involvement, how dangerous would the actual battle against him be?

She looked at Sora’s tear stained face and promised him, that this time she would protect him.

***

The room Sora found himself in was blurry. He blinked a couple times trying to refocus the world around him. The fog in his mind kept him from thinking, he didn’t know what was going on. His limbs were heavy, and his right leg was stuck in a stirrup. All he could do was look around the fuzzy room.

Someone entered the room. Sora didn’t have the energy nor the lucidity to worry who it was though. He was stuck in this bed, and yet he felt detached from the world. As if he was watching the events unfold from behind a wall of glass.

The figure checked his leg, replacing old bandages with clean new ones. Sora could recognize the person but couldn’t place where. Satisfied that Sora’s leg was cleaned, the figure turned to leave the room.

Somewhere in Sora’s mind, he realized that the person who had just dressed his wound didn’t know he was awake. He tried to say something, just to let the person know, but all that came out was gurgling noises. But it seemed to get their attention. The figure turned around. More awareness was coming back to Sora. The room was getting less fuzzy, but now the room seemed to spin around him.

The figure spoke to him, he watched the lips move but didn’t understand what they said. “Sora… Can… Hear me?” How long was he out for?

“Who…? Where…?” Sora struggled to speak.

“Heavens my dear. Don’t you recognize me?” Their voice was distorted but the fog in his mind was beginning to fade.

“You’re… I know you… Fl-Flo-Flora?”

The good fairy smiled. “That’s right, Sora. Fauna and Merryweather are looking after Goofy and Donald respectively. You’ve given us all quite a scare looking for you.”

“S-Sorry.”

“It’s quite alright, my dear. You’ve had a rough couple of days, haven’t you? But you’re safe now. Just try to rest up.”

“Uhh… Okay…” _Safe._ Sora relaxed when he heard the words. Exhaustion coursing through his body, now that he knew he could afford to rest.

“I’ll let the others know you’re awake now.”

“Mmhmm” Sora wanted to see the others as soon as possible. But the reassurance that he was safe again relaxed him and soon he began to feel drowsy once more. Soon he heard the sound of people shuffling into his room. A couple of them asked him questions. But he wasn’t quite sure what they said but he did his best to answer incoherently until he eventually passed out again.

***

Sora had set down the crutch given him. He sat on a large rock by a cliffside nearby Merlin’s enchanted forest, watching the sunset. He breathed a heavy sigh as he tried to relax and soak in the world around him. Some days he believed that the events with Wood and Buzz were just a terrible nightmare. Other days he thought he was in a dream. He’d beg his friends not to let him wake up. It would take his friends a couple tries before they’d be able to remind him that toys didn’t sleep.

“This can’t be a dream, Sora. You said it yourself, toys don’t sleep.” Was the most common response he’d get.

Sora ran a hand through his hair, enjoying the feeling of his hair no longer being a single solid piece. Strands of hair moving out of the way as he let his nails slide down his scalp. He shivered as he enjoyed the soothing sensation.

The days had been filled with questions about what happened to him and the others. And for those early days Sora and the others didn’t say much of anything, still suffering through the shock of being in one form and discovering they were in another again.

“What did you eat?”

“Nothing.”

“When did you sleep?”

“We didn’t.”

“What was it like to be a toy?”

“Sometimes, like being buried alive. Other times, like I was wearing a hard suit that looked like me.”

Sora took a bite from the sandwich Merlin had made for him. He wanted him to try and pace himself while he ate. He hadn’t had any food for nearly a week and eating too much too quickly could be bad for him.

“You shouldn’t wander off, Sora” Kairi said as she entered the clearing. She took in the sunset before sitting beside Sora.

“Sorry, I just- I guess I needed to be alone for a bit. Sorry, I should be sick of being alone by now, huh?”

“It’s alright, besides you didn’t go too far.” Kairi reassured. “This is actually a spot that Axel and I would take breaks on.” She patted the rock they were sitting on “We’d watch the sunset all the time while training.”

“It’s still hard to believe this is real.” He gripped Kairi’s hand, but not making eye contact. “Woody offered me a place in Andy’s room. I nearly accepted it too, because…” Sora swallowed, afraid to say the words out loud.

“I know, Sora.” Kairi pulled him into her. “You wouldn’t have accepted the offer if you knew we existed.” Kairi pulled away. She wanted to comfort him with the hug, that much was true. But she also wanted to see his eyes again and leaving the hug he was staring right at her now. Her face grew hot as he looked at her, she hoped the pinks and reds coming off the sunset would help hide the blush she could feel on her face.

“Yeah, but you brought me back.” Sora mulled over the words before letting out a soft chuckle. “-Again, now that I think about it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Remember when I lost my heart? You brought me back then. And when I didn’t return to the islands you went out and found me and Riku and brought both of us back.” Sora hoped she could hear the thankfulness in his voice. “I really would have left with Woody, and I’m not sure if you guys would ever have found us at Andy’s house. But on my shoe, your name was there. And that was enough, I couldn’t leave with Woody and Buzz. I had to find you, and once again…” Sora tried to look away, but Kairi leaned over to follow his head. Forcing him to keep looking at her. “Once again, you found me. Once again, you brought me back.”

“Sora…” Kairi placed her hand on his. “You’ve always brought me back too. I’d lost my heart after the Islands were attacked. And don’t forget I was kidnapped by the Organization as soon as I started looking for the two of you.”

Sora looked away. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault that the Organization came after you.”

“No, it’s not!” Kairi grabbed his hand, pulling his attention back towards her. “Sora, we’re dealing with powerful enemies. And it’s not just you or me who have needed help at some point. Everyone has needed help. Riku was taken by Xehanort’s heartless, the King relied on Donald and Goofy to find you and defend the worlds, Ventus is missing and only Master Aqua knows where he is, Master Aqua has been trapped in the Realm of Darkness for ten years, and Terra is missing and possibly still under Xehanort’s control. Sora, I know you don’t look down on any of us even though we’ve all needed your help far more than you’ve needed ours. So please, please don’t think less of yourself just because you doubted us and needed help.”

Sora embraced Kairi again. “Kairi… Thank you.” Sora didn’t feel as weak as he used to when he was with her. “You make me feel… I don’t know. Better I guess?” Sora didn’t know how to express what he was feeling. Sid had made him feel worthless and all his attempts to help his friends forced him to accept his weakness. But talking to Kairi made him feel strong again. Sora wanted to tell her this but didn’t know how to word it. He considered that just saying it would likely be for the best.

“I’m glad I could help you feel better.” Kairi smiled at Sora. “But… I think I need to get back to training. I’ll see you at Merlin’s house when I’m finished, okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll see you then.”

***

 “You’re leaving today?” Kairi looked at Sora.

“Yeah. Somebody’s got keep an eye out on the worlds while everybody else is busy. You knew I’d be leaving once we were able to walk again.” Sora reminded.

“I know, I just didn’t think it would be coming up so soon.” Kairi looked at Sora’s shin. The memories of him falling over with the newly formed open wound still fresh in her mind. “Are you sure you’ll be okay? You’ve only been back for two months.”

Sora placed a hand on her shoulder, hoping the gesture would bring her some comfort. “I know. But compared to most places I’ve been, I’ve stuck around here for a super long time now.” Sora noticed where her eyes kept drifting down to. “And besides, you don’t have to worry about my leg anymore. Yen Sid, Merlin, the three Fairies have all been making sure it heals as quickly as possible. Merlin even got in contact with Cinderella’s Fairy God Mother and had her check on me too.” Sora stamped on the ground a couple of times to demonstrate.

“I know, I know. It’s just, what if something like this happens again? We almost lost you.”

“There’s no one else who really can go, Kairi. You and Axel still need to train and Riku needs to go with Mickey back into the Realm of Darkness. And that place is way more dangerous! I just got unlucky with this last world. I’ll be fine”

“Sora, this isn’t a game! The heartless are always going to try and kill you!”

“I know, but visiting all these different worlds and making new friends… Well, I love it. I promise I’ll be safe, and if I somehow break that promise, you’ll know. That’s how you found me. And once all of this is done and Xehanort is taken care of, maybe you can come with me and we can visit all the worlds out there together.”

Kairi tried to suppress the smile growing on her face. Over correcting with a frown that resembled a child frowning. Seeing Sora himself start to smile at the face she was making, she quickly gave up on looking serious and let it spread over her face. “I’d like that.”

“C’mon, Sora!” Donald yelled as he and Goofy came out of a door from further down the hall. “Let’s get going already!”

Sora turned to look at Kairi one more time. “Don’t worry I’ll be fine. And besides, I’m just a Gummi Phone call away.” He turned and made his way towards Donald and Goofy.

“Gawrsh, what were you two talkin’ about?”

Sora looked back at Kairi. She slowly got farther and farther away. “Just some plans for the future… She’s still a little worried about my condition, but I think it’ll get easier for her once we’ve been out for a few days.”

“Plans for the future, eh?” Donald said. “What kinda plans did you make.” He snickered.”

“Just some ideas about what we’ll do once Xehanort’s gone.” Sora said.

“Some plans for just the two of you?” Goofy added. “What’ll Riku do without you two?”

“Wha- Riku’s not _excluded!_ We were just talking about what _we_ specifically will be doing, because he’s not here.”

“Uh-huh, sure.” Donald said.

“Aww, I think it’s cute. I hope you two have somethin’ nice planed for when this all done.” Goofy said putting his hands on Sora’s shoulders as a show of support.

“Guys, stop! It’s not what you think!” Sora pleaded.

“Not what we think? Goofy scratched at his head. “Are you sure you both weren’t having the same conversation but talking about different things?”

“Nah, he knows what they were talking about…” Donald teased. “He’s just hoping he we won’t press the issue further.”

“Gawrsh, ya really think you can trick us like that, Sora? We’ve already seen her name on your shoe, and we know what that means.”

“Did you tell her about seeing her name appear and what it means?” Donald looked up to Sora to ask the question.

“Not really. A while back, when I was visiting Merlin’s Enchanted Forest. We talked for a bit. I told her that her name appeared, but I never told her what we thought the significance of it was.”

“Why not?” Goofy asked.

“I just didn’t know how to put it into words, I guess…”

“Well, could you try describing how you felt when you were with her at the Forest?”

“Strong, I guess? Before we started talking, I just felt so weak. Kinda worthless honestly. But when Kairi showed up all of that went away.

“Maybe next time you see her you should just say that.”

“What? That she makes me feel strong? I was hoping for something a little more, uh I don’t know, eloquent?

“Y’know, I think it’s best to be open, rather than hoping to find the perfect moment. Otherwise you’ll find the perfect moment will have already passed long ago.”

“I don’t know… What do you think, Donald?”

“You can probably trust Goofy’s advice. Besides the King, he’s the only one in this tower who’s been married.”

“What? Not even Yen Sid? He’s old enough to have been at one point.”

“Aww, I doubt Yen Sid ever gets out of his chair.” Donald wondered just how powerful of a wizard Yen Sid was. “Say, you guys don’t think the walls in this tower have ears, do you?” He asked nervously.

Sora laughed as they approached the exit of the tower. “Maybe you should have waited until we were outside before you said that!”

Sora was relieved when the Gummi-Ship Chip and Dale had prepared for them was finally in view. “We’re going to have to find something else to talk about once were in flight, guys.”

Sora walked ahead of them into the Gummi-Ship and flipped the system on. The familiar voices of Chip and Dale popped up as the system came online.

“Sora, welcome back!” Chip bounced up and down as he saw Sora’s face on the monitor.

“Heya, Sora. I hope you’re ready to travel to some new worlds again!” Dale said.

“Yep, I’ve had plenty of time to heal up.” Sora flexed his muscles. “I’m as healthy as an ox!”

“And he’s as smart as one, too!” Donald joked.

“Oh yeah? And who asked you?”

“Well, it’s good to see your all back to one hundred percent.” Chip said.

“Yeah, ‘cuz we found two brand new worlds for you to explore.” Dale added. Instantly Sora and Donald stopped scowling at each other in that goodnatured way friends do, where the scowl is located in the wrinkle of the nose than in the eyes.

“Alright, then it’s takeoff time! Right, guys?” Sora looked back at Donald and Goofy. They both nodded at him, Goofy threw a salute up to the captain of the ship. “Alright next stop, wherever this place is!” Sora selected one of the unknown worlds and started the engines.

Excitement coursed through his veins as the ship lifted off the ground. Next time he saw Kairi, He’d be able to put into words how she made him feel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's all he wrote! Thank you again to all who read this to the end! I hope I was able to entertain you. I'm sorry this took so long to write. But I'm pretty happy with how this came out. One thing I wanted to do when I wrote this final chapter was give some extra context to why Kairi would be so insistent that she'd protect Sora during the Keyblade war. I also wanted to add more of a reason for why Sora told Kairi that she made him feel strong feel strong of all things. And, hopefully, I managed to do that fairly well. Anyway I'm going to head off now. If you read this all the way through then I'll ask one more time to please leave a comment and let me know what you thought of this story.


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